Prehistoric animal remains found on Black Sea coast

The bones of a prehistoric animal, which probably belonged to a woolly rhinoceros that lived on the Black Sea coast about 12 thousand years ago, were found on the outskirts of Chornomorsk town, Odesa region.

"The bones that probably belonged to an ancient rhinoceros of the Coelodonta antiquitatis species were found near Chornomorsk. The find will soon be handed over to scientists of the Odesa Mechnikov National University," Odesa resident Oleksandr Makarenko posted on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

According to him, the remains found on the seacoast are a fragment of vertebrae of a woolly rhinoceros. Makarenko expects that scientists of the Odesa National University would determine it more precisely.

The woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) is an extinct species of rhinoceros that was common throughout Europe and northern Asia during the Pleistocene epoch and Early Holocene and died out 8-14 thousand years ago.

The woolly rhinoceros was a member of the Pleistocene megafauna. The main causes of its extinction are thought to be climate change and related changes in flora, as well as human hunting.

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