Estimation of individual age and season of death in woolly rhinoceros, Coelodonta antiquitatis (Blumenbach, 1799), from Sakha-Yakutia, Russia

A unique find of a woolly rhinoceros skull bearing both nasal and frontal horns is described from a thermokarst lake of the Bol’shaya Chukoch’ya River basin in north-eastern Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Russia. Based on counts of cementum layers of the maxillary first molar and dark and transverse bands of the nasal and frontal horns a correlation of individual age records within these structures is established. Both estimations of individual age are agreed as well as three other age estimation criteria followed from cranial characteristics, general aspects of dentition and tooth wear pattern. Thus, the number of horn bands, which is equal to 30 or 31, does express the individual age at the moment when the woolly rhinoceros died. The tooth cementum and both horns are proved to be recording structures of woolly rhinoceroses which can be used as precise individual age estimation criteria. The season in which death occurred is also discussed.