Woolly rhinoceros

Woolly rhinoceros Temporal range: Middle Pleistocene–Late Pleistocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Woolly rhinoceros skeleton
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Perissodactyla
Family:	Rhinocerotidae
Genus:	†Coelodonta
Species:	†C. antiquitatis
Binomial name
†Coelodonta antiquitatis (Blumenbach, 1799)
Subspecies[1]
C. a. praecursor Guérin, 1980 C. a. antiquitatis Guérin, 1980
Synonyms
Rhinoceros lenenesis Pallas Rhinoceros antiquitatis Blumenbach Rhinoceros tichorhinus Fischer.[2]

The woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) is an extinct species of rhinoceros that inhabited northern Eurasia during the Pleistocene epoch. The woolly rhinoceros was a member of the Pleistocene megafauna. 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. Mummified carcasses preserved in permafrost and many bone remains of woolly rhinoceroses have been found. Images of woolly rhinoceroses are found among cave paintings in Europe and Asia. The range of the woolly rhinoceros contracted towards Siberia beginning around 17,000 years ago, with the youngest known records being around 14,000 years old in northeast Siberia, coinciding with the Bølling–Allerød warming, which likely disrupted its habitat, with environmental DNA records possibly extending the range of the species around 9,800 years ago. Its closest living relative is the Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis).