About 25 million years ago, giant rhinos over 16 feet tall roamed Earth. It is the largest land mammal that has ever lived – but its evolutionary and dispersal history in Asia has baffled scientists.
Paleontologists have now discovered the fossils of a new sixth species of extinct giant rhino, Paraceratherium linxiaense, which explains how the animal moved through China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Pakistan. That Research team, led by Ding Tao of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, and published 2015 findings in New study This week in the journal Communications Biology.
Researchers have found perfectly preserved fossil skulls, jawbones and teeth with associated atlases, the part of the body where the head connects to the spine. Another fossil consists of three vertebrae.
Chen Yu
The rest provided enough detail for the team to build a digital 3D model and compare it to other giant rhinos – leading them to classify a new species, distinguished by its longer and more flexible neck.
The rare fossil, which was found in Gansu Province, China, on the northeastern border of the Tibetan Plateau, dates to the late Oligocene, an era that lasted from about 34 million years ago to about 23 million years ago.
The giant rhinoceros was much larger than modern rhinos, estimated to be about 16 feet tall at the shoulder, and weighed over 40,000 pounds. They also lack horns.
IVPP
The discovery highlights how the region has changed since the extinction of this great creature.
In their article, the researchers write: “It is possible that the Tibetan region hosted some areas of lower elevation, perhaps less than 2,000 meters during the Oligocene, and the giant rhino subspecies could have spread freely along the eastern coast of the Tethys Ocean. and maybe in some of the lowlands in this region.” “study.
The researchers found that in the early Oligocene, the animal spread westward into Kazakhstan, with the offspring expanding to southern Asia, then returning north to cross the Tibetan region to produce P. linxiaense and finally eastward in the Linxia Basin.
“Late tropical conditions in the Oligocene allowed the giant rhino to return north to Central Asia, meaning that the Tibetan region was not yet as high as the highlands,” said Deng.
–
