The rhinoceroses belong to the group of mammals with an odd-number of toes, the Perissodactyla. Our modern five species of rhinoceroses belong to the Family Rhinocerotidae, which also contains about 50 extinct species. The Family Rhinocerotidae developed in the Late Eocene Epoch (55 to 36 million years ago) or Early Oligocene Epoch (36 to 22.5 million years ago) and spread across North America, Asia, Europe and Africa. During the Pliocene Epoch (5 to 1.8 million years ago), however, they began to decline in numbers and diversity.
Rhinoceroses had already disappeared from North America at the end of the Miocene Epoch (22.5 to 5 million years ago). The Panama Isthmus formed about three million years ago, connecting North and South America, so rhinoceroses never moved into South America.
The woolly rhinoceros, Coelodonta antiquitatis, appeared during the Mid-Pleistocene Epoch (about 500,000 years ago) in eastern Asia. Coelodonta spread into Europe but never crossed the Bering Land Bridge into North America. Although their fossils have been found in England, they do not appear to have moved into Ireland. They were larger than our modern rhinoceroses, 11 feet (3.5 meters) in length, seven feet (2.2 meters) at the shoulder and weighing well over two tons.
Like our modern rhinoceroses, Coelodonta had two "horns" composed of matted hair on its snout. The front "horn" could grow to a length of three to five feet (1 to 1.6 meters) in older males! These "horns" were probably used to clear snow to uncover vegetation, but would have also made formidable weapons.
The latter part of the Pliocene Epoch and into the Pleistocene Epoch was a time of considerable climate change, in which glaciers spread over Eurasia and North America. At different times during the Pleistocene Epoch, the ice sheets reached a thickness of greater than 3,280 feet (1 km), and reached as far south as London, England, in Europe and St. Louis, Missouri, in North America. Like the woolly mammoth, Coelodonta was able to adapt to this climatic change by growing a long, woolly coat of thick fur and a thick layer of fat to keep it warm. This allowed it to survive in the harsh conditions of the tundra and steppes that bordered the glaciers in northern Europe and Asia.
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