You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (June 2022)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
| Rhinotitan Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Skeletal mount, Paleozoological Museum of China. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Perissodactyla |
| Family: | † Brontotheriidae |
| Genus: | † Rhinotitan Granger and Gregory, 1943 |
| Species [1] | |
| |
Rhinotitan (nose giant) is an extinct genus of brontothere from the Eocene of Mongolia, with two valid species, R. andrewsi and R. kaiseni. [1] The genus included medium to large brontotheres which had long skulls with nasal horns. Like other solid-horned brontotheres, Rhinotitan was sexually dimorphic in horn size. In living mammals, this pattern is found in species that live in groups; males have the larger horns, and use them in ritualized combats with other males to decide control of territories that offer breeding access to females. Most horned brontotheres had dish-shaped skulls assumed to be adapted for such combats. However, the skull of Rhinotitan was concave only near the front; the top and back of the skull was rounded in a way similar to hornless brontotheres. The functional significance of this character is unknown. [2]
It weighed 1.5 tons. Tooth analysis indicates that, like other brontotheres, it was a herbivore adapted to browse on leaves.