Dental ontogeny of the woolly rhinoceros Coelodonta antiquitatis (Blumenbach, 1799)

A study has been made of 267 skulls and 160 mandibles of the woolly rhinoceros, Coelodonta antiquitatis Blumenbach. From these it can be shown that there is a marked similarity in certain developmental peculiarities of the dentition to the living African rhinoceroses Diceros bicornis and Ceratotherium simum Burchell. The presence of the milk-tooth D1, the condition of D2-D4, as well as some morphological peculiarities in the molar rudiments in maxillae of woolly rhinoceros, would seem to indicate that developmental phases in the milk-teeth of C. antiquitatis, D. bicornis and C. simum are similar. The rudimentary incisors dI1 – dI2 in adult individuals of woolly rhinoceros and contemporary African ones are met with the same frequency. The peculiarities of initiation, development and eruption of P4 and M3 for the woolly rhinoceros are identical with those in the living species. The abnormalities, irregular eruption of P4 and supernumerary P4 and M3, are found both in recent and extinct rhinoceros of the genera Coelodonta and Dicerorhinus. From this morphological analysis it can be concluded that the dentition of the family Rhinocerotidae was not subject to rigid specialization during evolution, but retained a plasticity and ability for rapid reconstruction.