Beijing, December 29 (Reporter Sun Zifa) What does the extinct giant rhinoceros look like?What is the difference between a giant rhino that was once mistaken for a hippopotamus and a hippopotamus?It has long attracted the attention of paleontologists.
The team of Deng Tao, a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, found that it is a new genus and species of giant rhinoceros fossils after the surname of Qiu Zhanxiang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who first discovered and studied the fossils of the giant rhinoceros.
Ecological restoration map of Qiu's giant rhinoceros in the early Miocene in the Tongxin area of Ningxia (painted by Chen Yu). Courtesy of the Institute of Paleospine, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The mystery of the giant rhinoceros has been lifted through in-depth research to clarify the mysterious morphological functions of the giant rhinoceros and provide more information and evidence for its accurate restoration.
This important result of the discovery and research of giant rhinoceros fossils was recently published in the international professional academic journal "Historical Biology"**.
*The first author, Sun Danhui, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the genus Giant Rhinoceros is the earliest group in the far-horned rhino family, with a slender skull and a particularly slender nasal boneThe buccal tooth enamel is weak, and the upper premolar tooth is lowly molarized, and is in a relatively primitive stage like the skull. Compared with other far-horned rhinoceros groups such as Rhinoceros spp., Rhinoceros spp., Rhinoceros spp., Rhinoceros spp., Proceratos spp., and Rhinoceros spp., Rhinoceros spp., Rhinoceros spp., Rhino spp., Proceratosis spp., Probors, Proceno spp., Probored Rhinoceros, and Rhinoceros spp., have different specialization directions, which is an important link in the
Comparison of real and fake hippos with giant rhinoceros fossils. Courtesy of the Institute of Paleospine, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The genus is typically characterized by strongly specialized lower incisors and mandibular symphysis, but the original meaning of its genus name Aprotodon is "no incisors", which is because the British paleontologist Clive Forster-Cooper founded the genus in 1915 on the basis of two fossil materials of the mandibular symphysis found in the Oligocene strata of Pakistan (about 34 million to 23 million years ago). Due to the large mandibular symphysis and morphological resemblance to a hippopotamus, it has been mistaken for an unknown hippopotamus and its incisors have been mistaken for canines.
Sun Danhui said that the giant rhinoceros is a primitive rhinoceros unique to Asia, and the body size of the genus varies greatly between species. Previously, there were four effective species in this genus, namely Fatah's Giant Rhinoceros, Fatah Ginger Giant Rhinoceros, Aral Sea Giant Rhinoceros and Lanzhou Giant Rhinoceros, which had a long survival time, from the late Eocene 37 million years ago to the early Miocene 17 million years ago. However, the range of the giant rhinoceros is relatively limited, and it has previously been found only in Gansu and Inner Mongolia in China, Balochistan Province of Pakistan and the Aral Sea region of Kazakhstan. Therefore, due to its long survival time and limited distribution range, it has always attracted the attention of paleontologists.
The fossil orthotype specimen of the skull of Qiu's giant rhinoceros and its corresponding drawings in this study. Courtesy of the Institute of Paleospine, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
She pointed out that although some paleontologists have mistaken the giant rhinoceros for a hippopotamus, there is a clear difference between the two fangs: the incisors of the hippopotamus are large, straight and cylindrical, while the incisors of the giant rhinoceros are flat and strongly curved;The lower canines of the hippopotamus do have strongly curved, but their surface has a thick enamel, well-developed longitudinal crest and wide grooves, the inner and outer sides of the crown are symmetrical, the abrasive surface of the upper half of the crown is smaller, the pulp cavity of the root of the tooth is large and open, and the incisors of the giant rhinoceros are the opposite of these features.
This study includes a schematic diagram of the phylogenetic analysis results of the giant rhinoceros (restored image on the right: Chen Yu). Courtesy of the Institute of Paleospine, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
*According to the corresponding author, researcher Tao Deng, the discovery of Qiu's giant rhinoceros has expanded the geographical range of the giant rhinoceros from South Asia, Central Asia, Gansu and Inner Mongolia in China to Ningxia in China. At present, Qiu's giant rhinoceros is the most specialized species of the genus Giant Rhinoceros. According to the results of phylogenetic analysis of 282 morphological characteristics, the phylogenetic analysis of the true rhino groups such as the genus Giant Rhinoceros showed that the intragenus of the Giant Rhinoceros formed a monophyletic branch, and the two taxa of Giant Rhinoceros Qiu's and Lanzhou Giant Rhinoceros formed sister groups. (ENDS).