Paraceratherium
Paraceratherium is an extinct genus of hornless rhinoceros. It is one of the largest terrestrial mammals that has existed. Its remains have been found across Eurasia between China and the Balkans. It was a browser, eating mainly leaves, soft plants, and shrubs. Because of its size, it would have had few predators and a slow rate of reproduction. The reasons for the animal’s extinction are unknown, but various factors have been proposed.
About Paraceratherium in brief
Paraceratherium is an extinct genus of hornless rhinoceros. It is one of the largest terrestrial mammals that has existed and lived from the early to late Oligocene epoch. Its remains have been found across Eurasia between China and the Balkans. It was a browser, eating mainly leaves, soft plants, and shrubs. It lived in habitats ranging from arid deserts with a few scattered trees to subtropical forests. Because of its size, it would have had few predators and a slow rate of reproduction. The reasons for the animal’s extinction are unknown, but various factors have been proposed. The taxonomy of the genus and the species within has a long and complicated history. The most completely-known species is P. transouralicum, so most reconstructions of this genus are based on it. Differences between P. bugtiense and P. huangheense may be due to sexual dimorphism, which would make them the same species. Many genera were named on the basis of subtle differences in molar tooth characteristics, and are therefore not accepted by most scientists for distinguishing species. Inaccurate geological dating previously led scientists to believe various geological formations that are now known to be contemporaneous were of different ages. In 1913, British palontologist Clive ForCooper-Cooper moved A. Bugtiense to the new genus A.Bugtiense. His rationale for this re-classification was that this species’ lower incisors were distinctly down-turned down-classified as Bugtius t-Copperus.
In 2013, the new species was re-classified as A.bugtiense t-copperus and moved to the genus Aceratherium, which was then a wastebasket taxon. It has since been moved to genera Bugtitherium and is now considered a separate species. The exact size of ParacerATHERium is unknown because of the incompleteness of the fossils. The shoulder height was about 4. 8 metres, and the length about 7. 4 metres. Its weight is estimated to have been about 15 to 20 tonnes. The long neck supported a skull that was about 1. 3 metres long. It had large, tusk-like incisor and a nasal incision that suggests it had a prehensile upper lip or proboscis. The legs were long and pillar-like. The fossils were collected in the Chitarwata Formation of Dera Bugti, where Guy Ellcock Pilgrim had previously been exploring. In 1908, he used the fossils as basis for a new species of the extinct rh inoceros genus AcerATHERium; A. bugticense. The first fossils now recognised as Paracer Heatherium were discovered by the British geologist Guy Ell cock Pilgrim in Balochistan in 1907–1908. His material consisted of an upper jaw, lower teeth, and the back of a jaw. It included several unrelated species of rhinocaeros, many of which have since been move to other genera.
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This page is based on the article Paraceratherium published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 01, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
