Woolly Rhino – Proves to be Very Popular

At Everything Dinosaur, we get lots of letters, drawings, emails and other sorts of correspondence from young fans of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.  Our team members read every one and we try to respond as quickly as we can to all those that require a reply.  Today, we reveal one of our favourites the Woolly Rhinoceros.

Woolly Rhinoceros

We received one letter recently from a young boy who wanted to know more about the Woolly Rhino.  He had received as a gift one of our prehistoric mammal soft toys (the Woolly Rhino) and he wanted to ask some questions about these strange prehistoric beasts.

Woolly Rhino Soft Toy (Mum and Baby Woolly Rhinos)

Woolly Rhinoceros soft toys.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view the Everything Dinosaur range of prehistoric mammal and dinosaur soft toys: Prehistoric Animal and Dinosaur Plush.

We were able to pass on the information and we ourselves find these soft toys rather cute, much more cute than the real animals would have been that’s for sure.

Woolly Rhinos were widespread during the Pleistocene Epoch, fossils have been found in China (they are believed to have originated in Asia), and as far west as Spain.  The Woolly Rhino soft toy depicts an animal called Coelodonta antiquitatis, the genus name is pronounced see-la-dont-ta, its means “old hollow teeth”.

The last Woolly Rhinos are believed to have lived in Western Siberia, but this species finally went extinct approximately 10,000 years ago, at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch.   The reason for their decline and eventual extinction is not known but it is likely that these two-tonne grazers were unable to adapt to the rapidly changing climate at the end of the last ice age.

We are delighted to hear that the Woolly Rhino still has many fans, sales of Ice Age soft toys are almost as high as sales of our dinosaur soft toys, especially when prehistoric animals such as the Woolly Rhino are featured in television programmes.