| Pliorhinus Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Skull of Pliorhinus megarhinus | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Perissodactyla |
| Family: | Rhinocerotidae |
| Subtribe: | Rhinocerotina |
| Genus: | †Pliorhinus Pandolfi et al., 2021 |
| Species | |
| |
Pliorhinus is an extinct genus of rhinoceros known from the Late Miocene and Pliocene of Eurasia. The type species, Pliorhinus megarhinus, was previously assigned to Dihoplus.
Taxonomy
The genus was named in 2021 to accommodate two species that had previously been included in a wide variety of rhinoceros genera, including Dihoplus and Stephanorhinus.[1]
- P. megarhinus (de Christol, 1834) known from the Late Miocene-Pliocene of Europe, Anatolia, China and Transbaikalia.[2][3]
- P. miguelcrusafonti (Guérin & Santafé-Lopis, 1978) known from the Pliocene of Europe
Species of Pliorhinus are medium-large sized two horned rhinoceroses, which have a nasal notch located above the molars, and are distinguished from other rhinoceroses by various characters of the teeth. P. megarhinus is noted for having a relatively flat skull roof.[1] Species of Pliorhinus are suggested to be closely related and possibly ancestral to Stephanorhinus.[4]
Morphological phylogeny after Pandolfi (2023), excluding living African rhinoceros species.[4]
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Ecology
P. megarhinus is suggested to have been a browser or mixed feeder.[5]
References
- 1 2 Pandolfi, Luca; Pierre-Olivier, Antoine; Bukhsianidze, Maia; Lordkipanidze, David; Rook, Lorenzo (2021-08-03). "Northern Eurasian rhinocerotines (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) by the Pliocene–Pleistocene transition: phylogeny and historical biogeography". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 19 (15): 1031–1057. doi:10.1080/14772019.2021.1995907. ISSN 1477-2019.
- ↑ Pandolfi, Luca; Gasparik, Mihály; Piras, Paolo (2015). "Earliest occurrence of "Dihoplus" megarhinus (Mammalia, Rhinocerotidae) in Europe (Late Miocene, Pannonian Basin, Hungary): Palaeobiogeographical and biochronological implications". Annales de Paléontologie. 101 (4): 325–339. Bibcode:2015AnPal.101..325P. doi:10.1016/j.annpal.2015.09.001.
- ↑ Pandolfi, Luca; Rivals, Florent; Rabinovich, Rivka (January 2020). "A new species of rhinoceros from the site of Bethlehem: 'Dihoplus' bethlehemsis sp. nov. (Mammalia, Rhinocerotidae)". Quaternary International. 537: 48–60. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2020.01.011.
- 1 2 Pandolfi, Luca (April 2023). "Reassessing the phylogeny of Quaternary Eurasian Rhinocerotidae". Journal of Quaternary Science. 38 (3): 291–294. doi:10.1002/jqs.3496. hdl:11563/163194. ISSN 0267-8179.
- ↑ Ballatore, Manuel (2016). "Palaeoecological investigations on Plio-Pleistocene European rhinoceroses (Genus Stephanorhinus): powder X-ray diffraction, carbon isotope geochemistry, tooth wear analyses and biometry". Plinius (42): 16–19. doi:10.19276/plinius.2016.01001. ISSN 1972-1366.