Rhinocerotoidea

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Rhinocerotoids
Temporal range: 56–0  Ma
Rhino collage.png
Rhinoceroses, a type of rhinocerotoid
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Skeleton of Paraceratherium (Paraceratheriidae)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Suborder: Ceratomorpha
Superfamily: Rhinocerotoidea
Gray, 1821
Families

Rhinocerotoidea is a superfamily of perissodactyls that appeared 56 million years ago in the Paleocene. They included four extinct families, the Amynodontidae, the Hyracodontidae, the Paraceratheriidae, and the Eggysodontidae. The only extant family is the Rhinocerotidae (true rhinoceroses), which survives as five living species. Extinct non-rhinocerotid members of the group are sometimes considered rhinoceroses in a broad sense. Although the term 'rhinoceroses' is sometimes used to refer to all of these, a less ambiguous vernacular term for this group is 'rhinocerotoids'. The family Paraceratheriidae contains the largest land mammals known to have ever existed. [1]

Taxonomy

The cladogram below follows a phylogenetic analysis by Bai et al. (2020): [2]

Rhinocerotoidea
(sensu lato)

Related Research Articles

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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.

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Uintaceras is an extinct genus of medium-sized early rhinocerotoids that lived in North America during the Middle Eocene, with only the type species U. radinskyi, named in 1997, currently contained within the genus. Traditionally considered the oldest and most primitive species of the Rhinocerotidae, it may instead have been a close relative of the Asian Paraceratheriidae. The dubious species Forstercooperia (Hyrachyus) grandis is also possibly the same animal as Uintaceras, although the Asian material of F. grandis was assignable to Forstercooperia confluens.

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References

  1. Deng, T.; Lu, X.; Wang, S.; Flynn, L. J.; Sun, D.; He, W.; Chen, S. (2021). "An Oligocene giant rhino provides insights into Paraceratherium evolution". Communications Biology. 4 (1): 639. doi:10.1038/s42003-021-02170-6. PMC   8211792 . PMID   34140631.
  2. Bai, B.; Meng, J.; Zhang, C.; Gong, Y.-X.; Wang, Y.-Q. (2020). "The origin of Rhinocerotoidea and phylogeny of Ceratomorpha (Mammalia, Perissodactyla)". Communications Biology. 3 (1): 509. doi: 10.1038/s42003-020-01205-8 . PMC   7490376 . PMID   32929169.