woolly rhinoceros

Thesaurus

Noun

woolly rhinoceros - extinct thick-haired species of Arctic regionsRhinoceros antiquitatisrhino, rhinoceros - massive powerful herbivorous odd-toed ungulate of southeast Asia and Africa having very thick skin and one or two horns on the snoutgenus Rhinoceros - type genus of the Rhinocerotidae

Woolly Rhinoceros

(Coelodonta antiquitatis), an extinct odd-toed ungulate of the family Rhinocerotidae. The woolly rhinoceros was larger than modern rhinoceroses (its height at the shoulders was more than 2 m), and it was covered with thick, woolly hair. The body was massive, with a fatty hump on the neck and two horns on the head—one on the nose (up to 1 m long) and one farther back on the forehead (significantly shorter). The woolly rhinoceros and the mammoth inhabited the tundra and forest tundra, feeding on grasses, pine needles, shrubs, and the shoots of young trees. In the late Pleistocene epoch the woolly rhinoceros was distributed throughout Europe (with the exception of the extreme southern areas) and northern Asia. In the permafrost mountain rocks of Eastern Siberia, bones and even carcasses of woolly rhinoceroses have been found, covered with dark brown fur. Two carcasses without hair were found in the western Ukraine in clayey sands saturated with oil. Late Stone Age man hunted the woolly rhinoceros. Rock paintings of the animal have been preserved.

REFERENCE

Gekker, R. F. Razvitie zhizni na zemle: Al’bom nagliadnykh posobii. Moscow, 1947.

B. A. TROFIMOV

woolly rhinoceros

Woolly Rhinoceros