Coelodonta tologoijensis

Coelodonta tologoijensis
Temporal range: Early Pleistocene–Middle Pleistocene
Drawing of a C. tologoijensis skull
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Rhinocerotidae
Genus: Coelodonta
Species:
C. tologoijensis
Binomial name
Coelodonta tologoijensis
Beliajeva, 1966

Coelodonta tologoijensis is an extinct species of rhinoceros belonging to the genus Coelodonta, related to the woolly rhinoceros. It is known from fossils found in Siberia and Mongolia, dating from the Early Pleistocene to Middle Pleistocene. One skull found in the Kyffhauser hills near the town of Bad Frankenhausen, Germany, dating to approximately 450,000 years was formerly assigned to the species by researchers, which would have made it the earliest known member of Coelodonta in Europe, However, a 2022 study refuted the assignment of the Bad Frankenhausen skull to C. tologoijensis, interpreting it as the skull of the woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) instead, meaning that the species is currently confined to Asia.[1]

References

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  1. ^ Uzunidis, A.; Antoine, P.-O.; Brugal, J.-P. (2022). "A Middle Pleistocene Coelodonta antiquitatis praecursor Guérin (1980) (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) from Les Rameaux, SW France, and a revised phylogeny of Coelodonta Bronn, 1831". Quaternary Science Reviews. 288: Article 107594. Bibcode:2022QSRv..28807594U. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107594.