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Size:
1.8 metres at shoulder
Weight: 2 Tonnes
Description:
Coelodonta
is the woolly rhino from Europe and Asia, and inhabited these areas
during the last ace age, only becoming extinct within the last 10000
years. It was a fairly
common animal, although much less so than the equally shaggy woolly
mammoth. This is probably
due to mammoths likely leading social lives and living in large groups,
whereas woolly rhinos spent most of their lives alone, as with modern
day elephants and rhinos. As
with all rhinos, the nose has two horns, one very large (up to 1 metre
long) and a much shorter one above the eyes.
Unlike modern rhinos, however, the longer horn was flattened to
look more like a blade. This
was probably used to help clear snow from the ground to help it find
food more easily. Coelodonta
was about the size of a modern white rhinoceros.
Another similarity is that it had a broad muzzle for efficient
grazing so coelodonta would have fed mainly upon grass.
The shaggy, thick fur helped it survive the incredibly cold
winters typical of the period in which it lived.
Woolly rhinos are often depicted in prehistoric cave paintings.
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