Gennady Boesko rov Mammoth Museum,Ya k u t s k

Wo o l ly rhino ( antiquitatis) distribution in Northeast Asia

B o e s k o r o v, G., 2001 - Woolly rhino (Coelodonta antiquitatis) distribution in Northeast Asia - D E I N S E A 8: 15-20 [ISSN 0923-9308]. Published 09 November 2001

An analysis of the geographical distribution of woolly rhino remains in Northeast Asia is given. O b v i o u s l y, the ancestor of C. antiquitatis starts to disperse from the Pribaikalie or Transbaikalia terri- tory northward to Southern Yakutia during the Early . In the Middle Pleistocene the woolly rhino was widely distributed from Central to North Yakutia up to Chukotka. Most of the C. antiquitatis finds are dated . During that period these inhabited the valleys of practical- ly all the long rivers and watersheds in Northeast Asia. Rhino remains are found in Central Chukotka and on Wrangel Island, but are not yet found in Alaska. Possible causes, preventing the dispersal of the wooly rhino to the New World, are discussed.

This paper is presented in the framework of the 2n d International Mammoth Conference, held in Rotterdam, 16-20 May 1999.

Correspondence: Dr. Gennady Boeskorov, Mammoth museum, Lenina prospect 39, 677891 Ya k u t s k , (Yakutia) Republic, Russia

Keywords: woolly rhino, Coelodonta antiquitatis, Pleistocene, Northeast Asia, distribution, A l a s k a

I N T RO D U C T I O N M AT E R I A L The genus C o e l o d o n t a was widely distributed Woolly rhino remains in the Institute of in the Eastern part of the Northern Palaearctic Geological Sciences of Yakutsk, collected by during the Pleistocene. There are many data d i ffe rent geological services in the districts of on their finds in East : in Pribaikalie Yakutia, Chukotka and Magadan, were stu- and Transbaikal region (e.g. Chersky 1891, died. Data of most of these finds were never Ermolova 1978, Kalmykov 1990), in Ya k u t i a published. Also fossil material, (e.g. Chersky 1891, Vangengeim 1961, which was stored in some museums of the Russanov 1968, Agadjanian 1972, Lazarev & Cities of Yakutsk, Irkutsk, Ve r k h o y a n s k , Tomskaya 1987). Finds of C. a n t i q u i t a t i s i n Aldan and the villages of Chersky, Betenkes, areas of Northeast Siberia such as the Khandyga and Ust-Tatta, was studied. Based River basin, Chukotka and the on these collections some new data on C. adjacent territories, are less well known. T h i s a n t i q u i t a t i s finds were obtained. Further, paper deals with a discussion of the finds material was studied that was collected from the latter areas and with a possible during expeditions of the Mammoth Museum explanation of why the woolly rhino never to the lower stream of the Kolyma River, reached Alaska. , some mammoth sites on the and Aldan Rivers, during 1994- 1998.

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R E S U LTS AND DISCUSSION bited valleys of practically all long rivers and Apparently the genus C o e l o d o n t a o r i g i n a t e d many watersheds (Fig. 1). Especially in in Central Asia in the territories of Northern Central Yakutia, many woolly rhino remains China and Transbaikalia during the Early were found in the territory between the Lena Pleistocene (Vangengeim et al. 1966) and and Aldan Rivers. A complete skeleton of C. probably dispersed to Southern Yakutia. A a n t i q u i t a t i s with some soft tissues was found find near Olyekminsk City belongs to this here at Churapcha village in 1972 (Lazarev period (Vangengeim 1961, 1977). During the 1977). Parts of skeletons were found in the Middle Pleistocene woolly rhinos were Mamontova Gora outcrop, one in 1976, an- already widely distributed in the territory of other in 1997, and one on the bank of the Yakutia and adjacent regions. Finds of their Khandayiky stream in 1990. Many remains of remains in the Nizhnyaya Tunguska River C. a n t i q u i t a t i s were also found in the middle valley (Vangengeim 1977), the Aldan river at stream of the Vilyui River. In 1771 an entire Mamontova Gora (Russanov 1968, carcass was found near Verkhnevilyuisk City, Agadjanian 1972), in the lower stream of the h o w e v e r, only the head and two legs were Yana and the Kolyma Rivers (Lazarev & saved. In 1858 a rhino skeleton was found at Tomskaya 1987) and the Malyi Anyui river at the place ‘Kentik’ near the Vilyui River Western Chukotka near Utkinsky Kamen (Chersky 1891). (Sher 1971), belong to this period. Nevertheless, most finds of C. a n t i q u i t a t i s In addition to the material mentioned above, remains in this region originate from fluviatil e many remains were also found in the Ya n a deposits which are dated Late Pleistocene. River basin. The most interesting finds of this These finds testify that these mammals inha- site are: a carcass from the banks of the

Figure 1 Distri bution of Coelodonta antiquitatis in Northeast A s i a .

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Khalbuy River found in 1877, and a part of a Woolly rhino remains were found in the north skeleton from the banks of the Khontolog of the Russian Far East on the Kamchatka River, found in 1901. Obviously C. antiquitatis Peninsula and the Koryak Highlands (Gromov inhabited different biotopes. Their remains 1948; Sulerzhitsky & Romanenko 1997). were found both in lowlands and on the plateaux. High mountain ridges were probably Poor finds of bones are known from mountai- essential obstacles for them. neous Western and Central Chukotka, where the mountain-valley glaciation was present It was assumed that woolly rhino remains are during the Middle and Late Pleistocene more numerous in Central Yakutia with a (Petrov 1965; Bojarskaya 1980). Obviously, plain landscape, than in Northern Ya k u t i a this glaciation prevented dispersal of C. a n t i - with large mountaineous territories (Lazarev q u i t a t i s into this region. Rhino remains are & Tomskaya 1987). Nevertheless, a high per- mainly found in Northwest Chukotka on the centage of C. a n t i q u i t a t i s bones was observed East Siberian Sea shore, including Ay o n by Sher (1976) in some northern parts of this Island. Although easternmost finds of region, on the Yukagirskoye plateau and in Northeast Asia are known from Wr a n g e l the Bolshoy Khomus Yuryakh River basin. Island (Sulerzhitsky & Romanenko 1997, Woolly rhino bones were here represented by Tikhonov 1997), in Central Chukotka from more than 25 % of all the fossil mammal the Ekityki River basin (Garutt 1998) and the bones. The highest frequency of woolly rhino Anadyr River basin (Agadjanian 1980; Garutt bones was observed on the plateaux and in 1998), it is a puzzle why C. a n t i q u i t a t i s c o u l d the mountain river valleys, while in the low- not pass the Bering Land Bridge. They did lands and in the long river valleys the rhino not reach Alaska, at least no Alaskan woolly remains were rather rare, usually about 1% rhino bones have yet been found. (Sher 1976; Chernova et al. 1998). During 1995 and 1997 material was collected at a Gromov (according to Garutt et al. 1970) Late Pleistocene outcrop in the lowland of assumed that they became extinct in North Duvanny Yar at the lower stream of the Siberia after the Early Würm. Other authors Kolyma River. The C. a n t i q u i t a t i s r e m a i n s supposed that the woolly rhino dispersed in represented here 1,3% and 1,65%, the northern and northeastern directions very r e s p e c t i v e l y, of the fossil mammal bones. The s l o w l y. They should have reached the outer- frequency of C. a n t i q u i t a t i s bones was higher, most part of northeast Asia only at the end of between 5,3% and 9,1%, in the outcrops of the Late Pleistocene and so they could not the Malyi Anyui River, west Chukotka, situ- reach the Bering Land Bridge ‘in time’. ated on higher places. Numerous remains of Nevertheless, the finds in the Utkinsky the woolly rhino were also found in mounta- Kamien outcrop, in Western Chukotka (Sher neous regions, in the basins of the Yana and 1971), testify that C. a n t i q u i t a t i s i n h a b i t e d the Indigirka Rivers at altitudes of 500-700 m already the outermost northeast of Asia at above sea level. least during the Samarovian glaciation of the Middle Pleistocene. Radiocarbon dates show It is also assumed that C. a n t i q u i t a t i s p r e f e r - that the above mentioned assumptions are red an arid climate. The largest number of wrong. C. a n t i q u i t a t i s was already widely dis- their remains are found in the Tr a n s b a i k a l tributed in the outermost northeast of Asia, at region, where a zone of dry steppes with parts least from the Karginian interglacial (24.000- of semi-deserts was present in the Pleistocene 50.000 yBP), until almost to the end of (Garutt et al. 1970; Vangengeim 1978). Sartanian glaciation (14.000 yBP, see Ta b l e Probably there were convenient conditions for 1 ) . existing on some highlands of Northeast A s i a .

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Ta ble 1. Radiocarbon dates of C. a n t i q u i t a t i s remains from northeast A s i a .

Flerov (1967) assumed that the main food of Churapcha rhino (Lazarev 1977) show that the woolly rhino were twigs of bushes. In his these rhinos were mainly grass-eaters. opinion the absence of bushes in the territory Ermolova (1978) assumed that the abundant of the Bering Land Bridge prevented disper- areas with crusted snowcover in the outer- sal. However, analyses of food remains most Northeast of Asia, at the beginning of caught within and between the teeth of some the Sartanian glaciation, prevented C. a n t i - woolly rhinos (Garutt et al. 1970; Guthrie q u i t a t i s to migrate to A l a s k a . 1990) and of gastrointestinal contents of the

18 BOESKOROV: Coelodonta antiquitatis in Northeast Asia

All modern rhinos (genera R h i n o c e ro s, R E F E R E N C E S D i c e ro rh i n u s , D i c e ro s, and C e r a t o t h e r i u m) Agadjanian, A.K., 1972 - Pleistocene mammals of the are characterised by low fertility and low Mamontova Gora - in: Markov, K.K. & Naumov N.P. ability for migration (according to Walker e t (eds.) - Teriofauna pleistocena - Moscow State Univ. a l. 1968). C. a n t i q u i t a t i s obviously did not Publishing House, Moscow : 70-143 (In Russian) d i ffe r from the modern rhino in these Agadjanian, A.K., 1980 - Pleistocene mammal fauna of respects. It is possible that very small popula- Chukotka and main stages of its forming - in: The tions lived during the last glaciation in the latest sediments and paleogeography of the outermost northeast of Asia. Pleistocene of Chukotka - Publishing House ‘Nauka’, Moscow - pp. 256-268 (In Russian) During the period of the Sartanian glaciation, Bojarskaya, T.D., 1980 - Some features of the develop when the Bering Land Bridge connected A s i a ment of vegetation on Chukotka during Neogene- with North America for the last time, there Pleistocene - in: The latest sediments and paleo- were periglacial landscapes with a xerophytic geography of the Pleistocene of Chukotka - tundra-steppe vegetation in the territory of Publishing House ‘Nauka’, Moscow : 250-255 (In the modern Bering Strait (Sher 1967; R u s s i a n ) Bojarskaya 1980 ). Such conditions must Chernova, O.F., Sher, A . V.,& Garutt, N.V., 1998 - have been convenient for C. a n t i q u i t a t i s; at Morphology of woolly C o e l o d o n t a least some rhinos must have been able to a n t i q u i t a t i s horns - Zoologichesky zhurnal 77 (1): 66- reach Alaska. Here it is suggested that woolly 79 (In Russian) rhino remains will be found in Alaska in the C h e r s k y, I.D., 1891 - The description of post-Tertiary future. Nevertheless, in the Late Wi s c o n s i n a n mammals collected by New Siberian Expedition in the Bering Land Bridge was narrower than in 1885-1886 - Proc. Russian Ac. Sci., St. Petersburg previous epochs (Degtiarenko 1971). It is 65: 1-706 (In Russian) also shown that a tundra with light bushes Degtiarenko, Yu . P., 1971 - Development of sea shore of and sedge swamps was situated on the territory Northern Chukotka in Pleistocene - in: Geo- of Northern Yukon during 16.000-12.000 yBP morphology and lithology of seas and large lakes (Ritchie & Cwynar 1982). Such biotopes with coastal zones - Publishing House ‘Nauka’, Moscow : poor food resourses were probably not attrac- 42-56 (In Russian) tive for them. Even if a small number of C. Ermolova, N.M., 1978 - Theriofauna of the Angara river a n t i q u i t a t i s, mammals with low migration basin in the Late Anthropogene - Publishing House a b i l i t y, had reached Alaska through the nar- ‘Nauka’, Novosibirsk : 1-220 row corridor of the Bering Land Bridge, they F l e r o v, C.C., 1967 - On the origin of the mammalian must have been stopped by the numerous gla- fauna of Canada - in: The Bering Land Bridge - ciated mountain ridges of Alaska. Stanford Univ. Press, California : 271-280 It is suggested here that this can explain the Garutt, N.V., 1998 - Neue Angaben über die Hörner des fact that no Alaskan C. a n t i q u i t a t i s b o n e s Fellnashorns Coelodonta antiquitatis - Deinsea 4: 25-39 have yet been found. Garutt, V.E., Metieltzeva, E.P. & Ti k h o m i r o v, B.A., 1970 - New data on woolly rhinoceros feed in Siberia - in: AC K N OW L E D G E M E N T S The Ocean and its coast in the - I wish to thank Dr. A.K. Agadjanian, Dr. V. I . Leningrad: 113-125 (In Russian) Zhegallo and Dr. N.V. Garutt for discussing G r o m o v, V.I., 1948 - Paleontologic and archeologic the material and Dr. L.D. Sulerzhitsky f o r basement of stratigraphy of Quarternary continental information on some radiocarbon dates. sediments on the USSR territory - Proceedings of the Institute for Geological Sciences, Moscow 64 (17): 1-524 (In Russian)

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Guthrie, R.D., 1990 - Frozen fauna of the Mammoth S h e r, A . V., 1971 - Pleistocene mammals and stratigraphy Steppe: the story of Blue Babe - The Univ. of of the Far Northeast USSR and North America - Chicago Press, Chicago and London: 1-323 Publishing House ‘Nauka’, Moscow : 1-310 (In Heintz, A. & Garutt, V., 1965 - Determination of the R u s s i a n ) fossil remains of mammoth and woolly rhinoceros S h e r, A . V.,1976 - The role of Beringian Land in the from the in Siberia by the help of radio development of Holarctic mammalian fauna in the carbon (C14) - Norsk Geologisk tidsskrit. 45: 2 Late Cenozoic - in: in the Cenozoic, K a l m y k o v, N.P., 1990 - Large mammal fauna of the Vladivostok, pp. 227-241 (In Russian) Pleistocene of Pribaikalie and Western Transbaikalia - S u l e r z h i t s k y, L.D. & Romanenko, F.A., 1997 - Age and Publishing House of Buryatian Scientific Centre, distribution of the ‘Mammoth’ fauna of the Polar Ulan-Ude: 1-115 (In Russian) region of Asia ( results) - L a z a r e v, P.A., 1977 - New find of woolly rhinoceros Kriosphera Zemli (Kriosphere of the Earth), Moscow skeleton in Yakutia - in: Proceedings of the 1(4): 12-19 (In Russian) Zoological Institute, Leningrad - Publishing House Ti k h o n o v, A., 1997 - About the activities of Zoological ‘Nauka’, Leningrad 63: 281-285 (In Russian) Institute Russian Ac. Sci, St. Petersburg, Russia - L a z a r e v, P.A. & Tomskaya, A.I., 1987 - Mammals and EuroMam Newsletter 4: 15 biostratigraphy of the Late Cenozoic of Northern Vangengeim, E.A., 1961 - Paleontologic foundation of Yakutia - Publishing House of Yakutian Scientific the Anthropogene sediments stratigraphy of the North Centre, Yakutsk: 1-169 (In Russian) of Eastern Siberia - Ac. Sci. of the USSR Press, M o c h a n o v, Yu.A., 1977 - The ancient stages of the Man Moscow: 1-181 (In Russian) settling in Northeast Asia - Publishing House Vangengeim, E.A., 1977 - Paleontologic foundation of ‘Nauka’, Novosibirsk: 1-246 (In Russian) the Anthropogene stratigraphy of Northern Asia - P e t r o v, O.M., 1965 - Paleogeography of Chukotsk Publishing House ‘Nauka’, Moscow: 1-169 (In peninsula in the Late Neogene and Quaternary period R u s s i a n ) - in: Anthropogene period in Arctic and Subarctic - Vangengeim, E.A., 1978 - Some aspects on paleozoo- Publishing House ‘Nauka’, Moscow: 24-30 (In geography of the Anthropogene - Bull. Commission R u s s i a n ) on the Quaternary period study 48: 3-14 (In Russian) Ritchie, J.C.& Cwynar, L.C., 1982 - The Late Quaternary Vangengeim, E.A., Beliajeva, E.I., Garutt, V.E., vegetation of the North Yukon - Paleoecology of Dmitrijeva, E.L. & Zazhigin, V.S., 1966 - Beringia - Academic Press, N.Y.: 11 3 - 1 2 6 Eopleistocene mammals of Western Transbaikalia - R u s s a n o v, B.S., 1968 - Biostratigraphy of the Late Publishing House ‘Nauka’, Moscow: 1-161 (In Cenozoic sediments of Southern Yakutia - Publishing R u s s i a n ) House ‘Nauka’, Moscow: 1-459 (In Russian) Wa l k e r, E.P., Warnick, F., Lange, K.I., Uible, H.E., S h e r, A . V., 1967 - Fossil saiga-antelope on the north of Hamlet, S.E., Davies, M.A. & Wright P. F., 1968 - Eastern Siberia and Alaska - Bulletin of Commission Mammals of the World - The John Hopkins Press, on the Quaternary period study 33: 97-112 (In Baltimore, second ed., vol. 1, 2 : 1-1500 R u s s i a n )

re c e i ved 20 August 1999 accepted 3 Janu a ry 2000

DEINSEA - ANNUAL OF THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM ROTTERDAM P. O . B o x 2 3 4 5 2 , N L - 3 0 0 1 K L R o t t e r d a m T h e N e t h e r l a n d s

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