The reconstruction of fossil bone morphology allows us to see the "true face" of ancient animals hundreds of millions of years ago. The ancient rhinoceros, the giant rhinoceros, was once mistaken for a hippopotamus. What does a giant rhinoceros look like?The new fossil discovery by Deng Tao's team from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences provides more information for the accurate portrait of the giant rhinoceros.
Ecological restoration map of Qiu's giant rhinoceros in the early Miocene in the concentric area of Ningxia. (Courtesy of the Institute of Paleospine, Chinese Academy of Sciences).
The genus Rhinoceros is a very special type of rhinoceros endemic to Asia, which is typically characterized by a strongly specialized lower incisor and mandibular symphysis, but the original Latin meaning of its genus name is "no incisors". This is because, in 1915, the British paleontologist Foster Cooper created the genus based on two pieces of mandibular symphysis fossil materials, because the fossil wide mandibular symphysis is similar to the hippopotamus, Cooper thought that it may be an unknown hippopotamus, so he mistook the incisors for canine teeth, in fact, there is a clear difference between the fangs of the giant rhinoceros and the hippopotamus.
The giant rhinoceros existed from the late Eocene to the early Miocene, and was found only in Gansu and Inner Mongolia in China, Balochistan in Pakistan, and the Aral Sea region in Kazakhstan. The long life span and limited distribution range have attracted the attention of paleontologists. Previously, there were four effective species of the genus Giant Rhinoceros Shi's, Fatah Ginger Giant Rhinoceros, Aral Sea Giant Rhinoceros and Lanzhou Giant Rhinoceros species.
A positive specimen of the skull of Qiu's giant rhinoceros. (Courtesy of the Institute of Paleospine, Chinese Academy of Sciences).
The fossil of the early Miocene (about 17 million years ago) giant rhinoceros found in the Tongxin area of Ningxia is an extremely beautifully preserved adult skull, and researchers have established a new species, Qiu's giant rhinoceros, to pay tribute to Academician Qiu Zhanxiang, who was the first to discover and study the fossils of Chinese giant rhinoceros.
The results show that at present, Qiu's giant rhinoceros is the most specialized species of the genus Giant Rhinoceros. Sun Danhui, a member of the research team and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced that the morphology of this new species is different from other rhinoceros that do not develop horns, and it is also significantly different from the Aral Sea giant rhinoceros, Lanzhou giant rhinoceros, and Fatah ginger giant rhinoceros in the genus Giant Rhinoceros. The discovery of Qiu's giant rhinoceros has enriched the biodiversity of far-horned rhinoceros in Asia and expanded the geographical range of giant rhinoceros.
The results were recently published in the international academic journal Historical Biology. (Reporter Wen Jinghua, Xie Jianwen).