The woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) is an extinct species of rhinoceros that was common throughout Europe and northern Asia during the Pleistocene epoch. The genus name Coelodonta means "cavity tooth". The woolly rhinoceros was a member of the Pleistocene megafauna.
As the last and most evolved member of the Pleistocene rhinoceros lineage, the woolly rhinoceros was supremely well adapted to its environment. Stocky limbs and thick woolly pelage made it well suited to the steppe-tundra environment prevalent across the Palearctic ecozone during the Pleistocene glaciations.
The external appearance of woolly rhinos is known from mummified individuals from Siberia as well as cave paintings. An adult woolly rhinoceros was typically around 3 to 3.8 metres (10 to 12.5 feet) in length, with an estimated weight of around 2,721–3,175 kg (5,999–7,000 lb). The woolly rhinoceros could grow to be 2 m (6.6 ft) tall. Two horns on the skull were made of keratin (which doesn’t survive in the fossil record), the anterior horn being 61 cm (24 in) in length, with a smaller horn between its eyes. It had thick, long fur, small ears, short, thick legs, and a stocky body.
The woolly rhinoceros used its horns for defensive purposes and to attract mates. During the last Ice Age the impressive animal roamed much of Northern Europe and was common in the cold, arid desert which are southern England and the North Sea today. Its geographical range expanded and contracted with the alternating cold and warm cycles, forcing populations to migrate as glaciers receded. The woolly rhinoceros co-existed with mammoths and several other extinct larger mammals of the Pleistocene megafauna.
