Dzungariotherium
Temporal range: Oligocene,
Skull of D. orgosense, Tianjin Natural History Museum
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: †Paraceratheriidae
Genus: †Dzungariotherium
Chiu, 1973
Type species
†Dzungariotherium orgosense
Chiu, 1973
Species
  • †D. orgosense Chiu, 1973
  • †D. tienshanense (Chiu, 1962)
  • †D. turfanense Xu & Wang, 1978
Synonyms
  • †Dzungariotherium turfanensis Xu & Wang, 1978
  • †Paraceratherium lipidus Xu & Wang, 1978
  • †P. lepidum Xu & Wang, 1978
  • †P. tienshanensis Chiu, 1962
  • †P. orgosensis (Chiu, 1973)
Skeletal mount (left) of Paraceratherium lepdium, which is possibly a synonym of D. turfanense, Turpan Museum

Dzungariotherium is a genus of paraceratheriid, an extinct group of large, hornless rhinocerotoids, which lived during the middle and late Oligocene of northwest China. The type species D. orgosense was described in 1973 based on fossils—mainly teeth—from Dzungaria in Xinjiang, northwest China.[1]

Description

Tooth, Paleozoological Museum of China

The teeth of D. orgosense (from which that species is mainly known) are 25 percent larger than those of Paraceratherium transouralicum, indicating that it was one of the largest known paraceratheriids,[2] but the teeth and skull were proportionally large compared to the body, making it smaller overall.[3] Skull length range is 126-143 cm. The mass of a D. sp specimen was estimated to be ~ 20.6 metric tons. [4]

Paraceratherium bugtiense and D. orgosense share features such as relatively slender maxillae and premaxillae, shallow skull roofs, mastoid-paroccipital processes that are relatively thin and placed back on the skull, a lambdoid crest, which extends less back, and an occipital condyle with a horizontal orientation. D. orgosense is distinguished from Paraceratherium species by the larger size of its teeth, and distinct crochets of its molars.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Zhan-Xiang, Q. (1973). "A new genus of giant rhinoceros from oligocene of Dzungaria, Sinkang" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 11 (in Chinese and English). 2: 182–191.
  2. ↑ Prothero, 2013. pp. 67–86
  3. ↑ Larramendi, A. (2016). "Shoulder height, body mass and shape of proboscideans" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 61. doi:10.4202/app.00136.2014.
  4. ↑ Deng, T. (2022). "Body mass of the giant rhinos (Paraceratheriinae, Mammalia) and its tendency in evolution". Historical Biology: 1–12. doi:10.1080/08912963.2022.2095908. S2CID 250366746.
  5. ↑ Lucas, S. G.; Sobus, J. C. (1989), "The Systematics of Indricotheres", in Prothero, D. R.; Schoch, R. M. (eds.), The Evolution of Perissodactyls, New York, New York & Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, pp. 358–378, ISBN 978-0-19-506039-3, OCLC 19268080
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