The Prehistoric Rhino Thread- Rhinos, unicorns and indricotheres

Adam Khor

A new species of woolly rhino has been found in Tibet; it lived earlier than the classic Coelodonta antiquitatis and is probably its ancestor. The interesting thing is that Coelodonta tibethana lived at a time when the world was warmer, and was adapted to life in the high, cold Tibethan Plateau. It seems that this discovery explains the origins of woolly rhinos; when the Ice Age arrived, Tibethan rhinos were happy to pack their bags and conquer the world so to speak; they didn´t evolve for the Ice Age, they simply were already very well equiped to survive in it.

http://news.discovery.com/animals/woolly-rhino-ice-age-tibet-110901.html

Adam Khor

Victoriaceros, a Miocene rhinoceros. It was closely related to Elasmotherium, the so called Giant Unicorn of Eurasia.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/713663440t2xv382/

Rubecula

That drawing makes it look like a real monster doesn't it. I wonder if it was a placid creature like a modern rhino.

Adam Khor

Rubecula wrote: »

That drawing makes it look like a real monster doesn't it. I wonder if it was a placid creature like a modern rhino.

The drawing actually depicts Elasmotherium, there are no pics of Victoriaceros just yet.
White rhinos may be placid, but according to what I've read, Indian rhinos are quite ill-tempered and umpredictable. Who knows what sort of temper these guys had...

Galvasean

Rhinos are placid?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8vzQyNjZBI

Adam Khor

Hapless prehistoric rhino was "baked alive":

http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_rhino-fossil-found-preserved-in-volcanic-eruption_1768109

It was a Ceratotherium neumayri, a close relative to today's white rhino.

Adam Khor

Fossils of hornless rhino found in Thailand:

http://phys.org/news/2013-06-species-hornless-rhino-late-miocene.html

Adam Khor

Rhinoceros fossils found on Norfolk beach:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2939360/Prehistoric-RHINO-uncovered-Norfolk-beach-Stormy-weather-revealed-700-000-year-old-creature-s-teeth.html

They're from a Stephanorhinus, which was about the size of modern day white rhinos.

Adam Khor

Hunters find frozen woolly rhino. And it's a calf, too; the first ever found.


http://www.wired.com/2015/03/hunters-find-frozen-10000-year-old-baby-wooly-rhino/

Adam Khor

Siberian unicorn did coexist with humans

(It was to be expected, considering the mythology from those regions)

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/giant-siberian-unicorn-may-have-existed-same-time-humans-fossilized-skull-hints

Wibbs

Quality content from our very own AK, as per usual. Long may it continue.

Rubecula

Very interesting, never heard of the beast before, it must have been fearsome at those sizes too.

Adam Khor

Indeed, it was comparable in size to many ceratopsians.



Russian folklore speaks of Indrik, a giant one-horned beast that made the earth shake when it walked and ruled over all other beasts. It may be a cultural memory of Elasmotherium, yet gives its name to the larger but hornless Indricotherium that lived much earlier, long before man.

Adam Khor

Extra ribs and the end of woolly rhinos:

https://cosmosmagazine.com/palaeontology/extra-ribs-may-have-been-a-harbinger-of-doom-for-the-wooly-rhino

Adam Khor

Frozen baby woolly rhino mounted for exhibition:

http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/features/lifelike-again-after-34000-years-the-worlds-only-baby-woolly-rhino/

Adam Khor

Oddly, this is seemingly news again:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46358789

Rubecula

Some have argued that the horn of the rhino may have been the basis of myths about unicorns, although other animals - such as the tusked narwhal - are more likely contenders.

I am undecided on whether these people understand the difference between a 4 legged creature and a marine whale like creature :eek:

Adam Khor

I find it unlikely that the narwhal had much to do with the Evenk stories of giant unicorns, since they described the horn as being so thick and massive that it took a sled to transport it. Their description of the beast was also pretty consistent (unlike the unicorns of medieval Europe which are a rather motley bunch). They said the giant unicorn was black, with the giant horn coming from its forehead rather than the snout, and with long legs which allowed it to charge at high speed at Evenk riders.
Elasmotherium fits the description perfectly- even if the actual horn has never been found preserved (but this is not so weird since it would've been made of keratin). There's also a cave painting that may represent Elasmotherium with its horn.



Earlier accounts of unicorns from elsewhere however are confusing because they seem to refer to different animals. Ctesias in the fifth century BC spoke of a kind of unicorn from India which came in black, white and red colors, which makes me think of the blackbuck, in which the male is dark brown/black and white, and the female is reddish:



Of course they have two horns but when seen from the side:



The spiraling, segmented horn looks a lot more like the horn seen in some unicorn depictions (and it would explain why the narwhal's tusk was identified with the unicorn as it also looks somewhat similar). The blackbuck's horns are around 70 cm long which is exactly what Ctesias states for the unicorn's horn.

Rubecula

Adam Khor wrote: »

I find it unlikely that the narwhal had much to do with the Evenk stories of giant unicorns, since they described the horn as being so thick and massive that it took a sled to transport it. Their description of the beast was also pretty consistent (unlike the unicorns of medieval Europe which are a rather motley bunch). They said the giant unicorn was black, with the giant horn coming from its forehead rather than the snout, and with long legs which allowed it to charge at high speed at Evenk riders.
Elasmotherium fits the description perfectly- even if the actual horn has never been found preserved (but this is not so weird since it would've been made of keratin). There's also a cave painting that may represent Elasmotherium with its horn.



Earlier accounts of unicorns from elsewhere however are confusing because they seem to refer to different animals. Ctesias in the fifth century BC spoke of a kind of unicorn from India which came in black, white and red colors, which makes me think of the blackbuck, in which the male is dark brown/black and white, and the female is reddish:



Of course they have two horns but when seen from the side:



The spiraling, segmented horn looks a lot more like the horn seen in some unicorn depictions (and it would explain why the narwhal's tusk was identified with the unicorn as it also looks somewhat similar). The blackbuck's horns are around 70 cm long which is exactly what Ctesias states for the unicorn's horn.

I have always thought this the most likely idea.

Adam Khor

This is the so called Kolyma woolly rhino (Coelodonta antiquitatis), found in 2007 at the opening of a gold mine in Yakutia. It was a female, weighing about 1.5 tons, and lived around 39.000 years ago. The woolly coat is not preserved but most of the animal's body is.

One of the most spectacular Pleistocene specimens in my opinion.

Rubecula

amazingly small in stature I feel but it looks very powerful

Adam Khor

Rubecula wrote: »

amazingly small in stature I feel but it looks very powerful

At 1.5 tons it IS rather small for a woolly rhino. The biggest males could weigh up to 2.5-3 tons, being in the same size range as today's Indian and white rhinos.

A very interesting trait is the shape of the nasal horn, laterally flattened into a blade-like shape, rather than round in cross section like a modern rhino's. The unusual shape led to the horns' early misidentification as the talons of an enormous prehistoric bird, "Gryphus antiquitatis".

Adam Khor

Rhinoceros and turtle remains found in the Canadian Yukon:

http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/miocene-rhinoceroses-yukon-07760.html

Adam Khor

Prehistoric rhino fossils found at Slovenian railway track:

https://www.total-slovenia-news.com/lifestyle/5705-120-000-yr-old-rhino-found-at-second-railway-track

The fossils may belong to a Stephanorhinus, a large form comparable in size to today's white rhinoceros but more closely related to the Sumatran rhino, which lived across Eurasia during the early and mid Pleistocene.

Adam Khor

Interesting article sums up what we know about the woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis)' appearance, based on both remains and prehistoric art.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150524043140/https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/the-remarkable-life-appearance-of-the-woolly-rhino/

Adam Khor

Study suggests climate change may have doomed woolly rhinos:

https://www.popsci.com/story/animals/woolly-rhino-climate/

Adam Khor

Another frozen juvenile woolly rhino from Yakutia!

This time its a 3-4 year old calf, with preserved internal organs, teeth, even food remains. It may have died by drowning and apparently during the summer, as it had short fur at the moment of death.

https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/a-well-preserved-woolly-rhino-with-its-last-meal-still-intact-found-in-the-extreme-north-of-yakutia/