WOOLLY RHINOCEROS

extinct genus (Coelodonta) of Pleistocene rhinoceros, found in fossil deposits in Europe, North Africa, and Asia of the Pleistocene epoch (1,600,000 to 10,000 years ago). The genus probably evolved from an earlier form, Dicerorhinus, somewhere in northeastern Asia, entered the European region, and became extinct at the end of the most recent glacial period. Frozen carcasses of woolly rhinoceroses have been found preserved in Siberia, and others have been found well preserved in oil seeps in central Europe. The animal was massive, with two large horns in the anterior region of the skull, and was covered with a thick coat of hair. The woolly rhinoceros was also present in more temperate, nonglacial regions, where it inhabited grasslands. It was a popular subject for Stone Age painters and sculptors; representations of the woolly rhinoceros, some of which are very accurate, are known from several localities.