Woolly rhinoceros fossil skeleton

The woolly rhino lived during the Ice Age and a skeleton of this contemporary of the mammoth has been donated to the King Baudouin Foundation. This prehistoric fossil will be made accessible to the general public and promoted in partnership with the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels.

A mythical Ice Age animal

The woolly rhinoceros lived in Siberia over 10,000 years ago, during the Late Pleistocene Age. During the last two glaciations, the geographical range of this species, which no longer exists today, stretched from Western Europe to Eurasia. The woolly rhino fed on grasses and lived alone or in small groups. It had two powerful horns and a thick, woolly coat. Huge climatic changes at the end of the last Ice Age – and perhaps also due to being hunted by man during the prehistoric period – led to this rhinoceros becoming extinct, just like the mammoth.

A celebrity

Thanks to numerous cave paintings and engravings, but also to the remains of skeletons discovered, the woolly rhinoceros is one of the best-known occupants of the mammoth steppe during the Late Pleistocene Age.

The last resting place selected

This donation is the first acquisition of a prehistoric work by the King Baudouin Foundation. Of great quality, the fossil will be exhibited at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels, where it will serve for both scientific ends and teaching.