The woolly rhinoceros descended from the Tibetan woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta thibetana) and was a close relative of the living Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis). Unlike its relatives, however, it was adapted to far harsher climatic conditions. The woolly rhinoceros also had the largest range of any rhinoceros species, from Scotland and Spain in the west to Korea and China in the east. It fed on the low-growing plants of the mammoth steppe, a type of vegetation that covered vast areas of Eurasia and North America during the colder, glacial phases of the Pleistocene. Adults measured 3 to 3.8 metres in length, stood about 2 metres at the shoulder and could weigh more than 2 tonnes. Woolly rhinos used their horns to sweep away snow and expose plants in winter, and also to fight with one another, a scene captured in cave paintings.

The species probably died out around 14,000 years ago as a result of warmer climate conditions at the end of the Pleistocene, loss of habitat and hunting. Woolly rhinos were hunted by both Neanderthals and modern humans, and their horns and bones were used to make tools and weapons.

At the Natural History Museum of the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences, in Kraków, visitors can see the superbly preserved, naturally mummified remains of a woolly rhinoceros that lived around 30,000 years ago. They were discovered in 1929 in an ozokerite (earthwax) mine in the village of Starunia, near what was then the town of Stanisławów (now known as Ivano-Frankivsk in Ukraine).