Coelodonta antiquitatis in the Pleistocene of Bulgaria (Perissodactyla: Rhinocerotidae)

Abstract

An analysis of the geographical and altitudinal distribution of remains of the woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) in Bulgaria is given. The paper summarizes all scattered data on the distribution of the species gathered in the last 114 years, only a part of them having been published before. Data on nine fossil localities (early–latest Pleistocene) from six provinces of Bulgaria are presented. The Fossil record proves the wide species distribution in the riverine foothills of mountains, plains, and lowlands of the country. Its Pleistocene localities were concentrated in the Danubian Plain, although the species was recorded also in the southernmost part of the country. About 90 percent of the localities were situated below 400 m a. s. l., although the species’ altitudinal distribution reached the maximum of 750 m a. s. l. All findings of the wooly rhinoceros in Bulgaria were made together with those of some species that now inhabit deciduous woodlands or rocky massifs of the temperate zone – Cervus elaphus, Capreolus capreolus, Rupicapra rupicapra, or Capra ibex, as well as extinct Bos primigenius. In Bulgaria, C. antiquitatis showed the same habitat preferences as in the core parts of the species range in Siberia. The Bulgarian localities of findings were both natural habitats and former human dwellings.