Woolly Rhinoceros

Coelodonta antiquitatis

Woolly Rhinoceros

“ Another animal that doesn't travel south at winter is the woolly rhino. They are very short sighted and this huge male has not even noticed the Neanderthal just fifty metres away. ”

– David Attenborough

Information

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Clade: Synapsida

Class: Mammalia

Order: Perissodactyla

Family: Rhinocerotidae

Genus: †Coelodonta

Species: †Coelodonta antiquitatis

Descendant: Coelodonta thibetana

Named by: Heinrich Georg Bronn and Johann Friedrich Blumenbach

Year Published: 1835

Size: 2 meters tall in height; 3 to 3.8 meters in length; 1,800–2,700 kg (4,000–6,000 lb) or 2,000 kilograms (4,400 lb) in weight

Lifespan: 35 to 50+ years

Type: 

Title: 

Pantheon: Terran/Gaian

Time Period: 3.6–0.01 BC Late Pliocene – Late Pleistocene

Alignment: Neutral

Diet: Herbivorous

Elements: n/a

Inflicts: Bleeding

Weaknesses: Fire, air, electric, ice, arcane, metal, fae, time

Casualties: ???

Based On: itself

Conservation Status: 

Woolly Rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) is an extinct species of rhinoceros that was common throughout Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene epoch and survived until the end of the last glacial period. The woolly rhinoceros was a member of the Pleistocene megafauna. It was a rhino fully adapted to the hostile conditions of the late Pleistocene.

Etymology

This name comes from the Greek words κοιλος (koilos, "hollow") and ὀδούς (odoús "tooth"), from the depression in the rhino's molar structure, giving the scientific name Coelodonta antiquitatis, "hollow-tooth of antiquity".

Physical Appearance

The woolly rhinoceros was covered with long, thick hair that allowed it to survive in the extremely cold, harsh mammoth steppe. It had a massive hump reaching from its shoulder and fed mainly on herbaceous plants that grew in the steppe.

Abilities

Woolly rhinos may have used their horns for combat, probably including intraspecific combat as recorded in cave paintings, as well as for moving snow to uncover vegetation during winter. They may have also been used to attract mates.


Fossilized skulls reveal traces of injury from other rhinos' front horns, while lower jaws and back ribs exhibit signs of breaking and reforming, suggesting that fighting may also be to blame. When compared to more recent rhinos, there appears to have been more intraspecific fighting. This is likely due to the last glacial period's rapid climate change, which put the animal under more stress due to competition with other large herbivores.

Ecology

The woolly rhinoceros had a similar life history to modern rhinos. Studies on milk teeth show that individuals developed similarly to both the white and black rhinoceros. The two teats in the female suggest that she raised one calf, or more rarely two, every two to three years. With their massive horns and size, adults had few predators, but young individuals could be attacked by animals such as hyenas and cave lions. A skull was found with trauma indicating an attack from a feline, but the animal survived to adulthood.


Woolly rhinoceroses mostly fed on grasses and sedges that grew in the mammoth steppe. Its long, slanted head with a downward-facing posture, and tooth structure all helped it graze on vegetation. It had a wide upper lip like that of the white rhinoceros, which allowed it to easily pluck vegetation directly from the ground. Pollen analysis shows it also ate woody plants (including conifers, willows and alders), along with flowers, forbs and mosses. Isotope studies on horns show that the woolly rhinoceros had a seasonal diet; different areas of horn growth suggest that it mainly grazed in summer, while it browsed for shrubs and branches in the winter

Behavior

Like their modern counterparts, bull woolly rhinos were likely territorial, protecting themselves from rivals, especially during the rutting season.

Distribution and Habitat

The woolly rhinoceros lived mainly in lowlands, plateaus and river valleys, with dry to arid climates, and migrated to higher elevations in favourable climate phases. It avoided mountain ranges, due to heavy snow and steep terrain that the animal could not easily cross.


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Lore

Unlike most Pleistocene animals, woolly rhinos are died out due to climate change associated with the receding Ice age and the hyperdisease hypothesis. Other cold-adapted species, such as reindeer, muskox and wisent, survived this period of climatic change and many others like it, supporting the 'overkill' hypothesis for the woolly rhino as main completion.

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