Ceratotherium neumayri

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Ceratotherium neumayri
Temporal range: Late Miocene, Vallesian-Turolian
Diceros pachygnathus.JPG
Skull
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Rhinocerotidae
Genus: Ceratotherium
Species:
C. neumayri
Binomial name
Ceratotherium neumayri
Osborn, 1900
Synonyms
  • Diceros pachygnathus Guérin, 1980
  • Atelodus neumayri Osborn, 1900
  • Diceros neumayri Osborn, 1980

Ceratotherium neumayri is a fossil species of rhinoceros from the Late Miocene (Vallesian-Turolian) of the Balkans and Western Asia, with remains known from Greece, [1] Bulgaria, [2] Iran, and Anatolia in Turkey. [3]

Contents

Taxonomy

The species was originally described in 1900 by Henry Fairfield Osborn as the species Atelodus neumayri. [4] The species is closely related to both the living African black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) and white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) as part of the tribe Dicerotini (also spelled Diceroti) or subtribe Dicerotina. [5] Its genus placement is disputed, with it historically having been placed in both the genera Ceratotherium and Diceros . [6] While some authors have suggested the species to be ancestor of both the white rhinoceros and black rhinoceros, [7] [8] other authors have suggested that it represents a distinct early offshoot that is not ancestral to these species. [5] A 2022 study placed the species in the separate monotypic genus Miodiceros. [5]

Description

The species was a large sized rhinceros, and had two horns, a nasal and a frontal horn. The nasal septum was not ossified. [5]

Ecology

Dental microwear analysis suggests that the species was a mixed feeder that engaged in both grazing and browsing. [9]

Discoveries

Fossils of the species have been found in the Balkans, including Bulgaria [2] and Greece [1] [5] ,as well as Anatolia in Turkey, and in northern Iran and the southern Caucasus in Western Asia. [5] A well-preserved sample fossil of the species, which is believed to have died of high temperatures during a volcanic eruption, has been found in Gülşehir, Turkey in 2012. [3] Some authors have suggested that the species was also present in Africa, based on Late Miocene remains found in Tunisia originally attributed to C. douariense. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perissodactyla</span> Order of hoofed mammals

Perissodactyla is an order of ungulates. The order includes about 17 living species divided into three families: Equidae, Rhinocerotidae (rhinoceroses), and Tapiridae (tapirs). They typically have reduced the weight-bearing toes to three or one of the five original toes, though tapirs retain four toes on their front feet. The nonweight-bearing toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or positioned posteriorly. By contrast, artiodactyls bear most of their weight equally on four or two of the five toes: their third and fourth toes. Another difference between the two is that perissodactyls digest plant cellulose in their intestines, rather than in one or more stomach chambers as artiodactyls, with the exception of Suina, do.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhinoceros</span> Family of mammals

A rhinoceros, commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae; it can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species of the superfamily Rhinocerotoidea. Two of the extant species are native to Africa, and three to South and Southeast Asia.

<i>Teleoceras</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Teleoceras is an extinct genus of rhinocerotid. It lived in North America during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs during the Hemingfordian to the end of Hemphillian from around 17.5 to 4.9 million years ago. It grew up to lengths of 13 feet long.

<i>Diceros</i> Genus of Rhinocerotidae

Diceros is a genus of rhinoceros containing the extant black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) and several extinct species.

<i>Dicerorhinus</i> Genus of mammals

Dicerorhinus is a genus of the family Rhinocerotidae, consisting of a single extant species, the two-horned Sumatran rhinoceros, and several extinct species. The genus likely originated in the Mid to Late Pliocene of Northern Indochina and South China. Many species previously placed in this genus probably belong elsewhere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White rhinoceros</span> Largest rhinoceros species

The white rhinoceros, white rhino or square-lipped rhinoceros is the largest extant species of rhinoceros. It has a wide mouth used for grazing and is the most social of all rhino species. The white rhinoceros consists of two subspecies: the southern white rhinoceros, with an estimated 16,803 wild-living animals, and the much rarer northern white rhinoceros. The northern subspecies has very few remaining individuals, with only two confirmed left in 2018. Sudan, the world's last known male northern white rhinoceros, died in Kenya on 19 March 2018 at age 45.

<i>Ceratotherium</i> Genus of mammals

Ceratotherium is a genus of the family Rhinocerotidae, consisting of a single extant species, the white rhinoceros, and its extinct relative Ceratotherium mauritanicum, of which Ceratotherium efficax is considered a synonym. Another species known as Ceratotherium praecox is now considered a member of the related genus Diceros. The placement of Ceratotherium neumayri from the Late Miocene of Europe and Western Asia within the genus has been questioned, with other authors assigning it to the separate genus Miodiceros. The species 'Ceratotherium’ advenientis is known from the Late Miocene of Italy.

<i>Rhinoceros</i> (genus) Genus of mammals

Rhinoceros is a genus comprising one-horned rhinoceroses. This scientific name was proposed by Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus in 1758. The genus contains two species, the Indian rhinoceros and the Javan rhinoceros. Although both members are threatened, the Javan rhinoceros is one of the most endangered large mammals in the world with only 60 individuals surviving in Java (Indonesia). The word 'rhinoceros' is of Greek origin meaning "nose-horn".

<i>Ancylotherium</i> Extinct genus of mammals

Ancylotherium is an extinct genus of the family Chalicotheriidae, subfamily Schizotheriinae, endemic to Europe, Asia, and Africa during the Late Miocene-Early Pleistocene, existing for approximately 9.8 million years.

<i>Chilotherium</i> Extinct genus of rhiniceros

Chilotherium is an extinct genus of rhinocerotids endemic to Eurasia during the Miocene through Pliocene living for 13.7—3.4 mya, existing for approximately 10.3 million years.

Ceratotherium mauritanicum is a species of fossil African rhinoceros found in the Late Pliocene to early Late Pleistocene of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. It is disputed as to whether remains from the Pliocene of East Africa belong to this species, and if so, whether C. mauritanicum is ancestral to the modern white rhinoceros. During the early Late Pleistocene, sometime between 120,000–57,000 years ago, it was replaced in North Africa by the modern white rhinoceros.

<i>Aceratherium</i> Extinct genus of rhinoceros

Aceratherium is an extinct genus of rhinocerotid of the subfamily Aceratheriinae that lived in Eurasia during the Miocene.

Paracamelus is an extinct genus of camel in the family Camelidae. It originated in North America and crossed the Beringian land bridge into Eurasia during the Late Miocene, about 6 million years ago (Ma). It is the presumed ancestor to living camels of the genus Camelus.

<i>Stephanorhinus</i> Extinct genus of rhinoceros

Stephanorhinus is an extinct genus of two-horned rhinoceros native to Eurasia and North Africa that lived during the Late Pliocene to Late Pleistocene. Species of Stephanorhinus were the predominant and often only species of rhinoceros in much of temperate Eurasia, especially Europe, for most of the Pleistocene. The last two species of Stephanorhinus – Merck's rhinoceros and the narrow-nosed rhinoceros – went extinct during the last glacial period.

<i>Brachypotherium</i> Extinct genus of rhinoceros

Brachypotherium is an extinct genus of rhinocerotid that lived in Eurasia and Africa during the Miocene. A first upper decidual molar referrable to Brachypotherium brachypus was found during gold mining in New Caledonia during the 19th century, being misidentified as a species of marsupial known as Zygomaturus. However, rhinoceros were never native to New Caledonia, and the tooth was probably used as jewelry by a French convict deported there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Narrow-nosed rhinoceros</span> Extinct species of rhinoceros

The narrow-nosed rhinoceros, also known as the steppe rhinoceros is an extinct species of rhinoceros belonging to the genus Stephanorhinus that lived in western Eurasia, including Europe, as well as North Africa during the Pleistocene. It first appeared in Europe around 500,000 years ago during the Middle Pleistocene and survived there until at least 34,000 years Before Present.

Madelaine Böhme is a German palaeontologist and professor of palaeoclimatology at the University of Tübingen.

Diceros praecox is an extinct species of rhinoceros that lived in Africa during the Pliocene, around 4 million years ago. It has been suggested to be the direct ancestor of the living black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis).

<i>Dihoplus</i> Extinct genus of rhinoceros

Dihoplus is an extinct genus of rhinoceros that lived in Eurasia from the Late Miocene to Pliocene.

Mcdonaldocnus is an extinct genus of nothrotheriid ground sloths that lived during the Middle Miocene and Early Pliocene of what is now Bolivia and Argentina. It was originally placed in the genus Xyophorus but was subsequently recognized as a distinct genus by Gaudin and colleagues in 2022. The authors reassigned the material of "Xyophorus" bondesioi, Xyophorusvillarroeli and Xyophorus sp. to Mcdonaldocnus. Fossils of Mcdonaldocnus have been found in the Cerro Azul Formation of Argentina.

References

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  2. 1 2 Geraads D, Spassov N. 2009. Rhinocerotidae (Mammalia) from the Late Miocene of Bulgaria. Palaeontographica A. 287:99–122.
  3. 1 2 Antoine, Pierre-Olivier; Orliac, Maeva J.; Atici, Gokhan; Ulusoy, Inan; Sen, Erdal; Çubukçu, H. Evren; Albayrak, Ebru; Oyal, Neşe; Aydar, Erkan; Sen, Sevket (2012). "A Rhinocerotid Skull Cooked-to-Death in a 9.2 Ma-Old Ignimbrite Flow of Turkey". PLOS ONE. 7 (11): e49997. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...749997A. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0049997 . PMC   3503723 . PMID   23185510.
  4. Osborn HF (1900) Phylogeny of the rhinoceroses of Europe. Bull Am Mus Natur Hist 12:229–267Return
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Giaourtsakis, Ioannis X. (2022), Vlachos, Evangelos (ed.), "The Fossil Record of Rhinocerotids (Mammalia: Perissodactyla: Rhinocerotidae) in Greece", Fossil Vertebrates of Greece Vol. 2, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 409–500, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-68442-6_14, ISBN   978-3-030-68441-9, S2CID   239883886 , retrieved 2023-11-20
  6. Handa, Naoto; Nakatsukasa, Masato; Kunimatsu, Yutaka; Nakaya, Hideo (2019-02-07). "Additional specimens of Diceros (Perissodactyla, Rhinocerotidae) from the Upper Miocene Nakali Formation in Nakali, central Kenya". Historical Biology. 31 (2): 262–273. Bibcode:2019HBio...31..262H. doi:10.1080/08912963.2017.1362560. ISSN   0891-2963. S2CID   135074081.
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  9. Hullot, Manon; Antoine, Pierre-Olivier; Spassov, Nikolai; Koufos, George D.; Merceron, Gildas (2023-08-03). "Late Miocene rhinocerotids from the Balkan-Iranian province: ecological insights from dental microwear textures and enamel hypoplasia". Historical Biology. 35 (8): 1417–1434. Bibcode:2023HBio...35.1417H. doi:10.1080/08912963.2022.2095910. ISSN   0891-2963. S2CID   251046561.
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