Chilotherium
Name:
Chilotherium.
Phonetic: Chy-lo-fee-re-um.
Named By: T. Ringström - 1924.
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia,
Perissodactyla, Rhinocerotidae.
Species: C. anderssoni, C. haberi,
C. kiliasi, C. kowalevskii, C. licenti, C. persiae, C.
samium, C.
schlosserim, C. wimani, C. xizangensis, possibly
more.
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Up to 1.5-1.8 meters tall at the shoulder
for the larger species.
Known locations: From Moldova and Russia in Europe,
across Asia to China and Vietnam.
Time period: Serravalian of the Miocene through to
the Zanclean of the Pliocene.
Fossil representation: Multiple individuals.
Chilotherium
is a genus of prehistoric rhinoceros that seems to have had a
geographic distribution spreading across Asia all the way up to Eastern
Europe. Chilotherium had no nasal horns like
rhinoceros are often
portrayed as having, but Chilotherium still
remained quite unique.
Two tusks formed from enlarged incisor teeth rose up from the lower
jaw, and while these tusks were present in male and female
Chilotherium, they seem to have been larger in the
males. This
would indicate that the upward facing tusks had a display purpose,
thought he fact that they were also present in females would suggest a
species recognition purpose as well as a possible practical
application. Some species of Chilotherium are
noted as browsers,
while others seem to be dedicated grazers.
A
fossil skull of a female
Chilotherium has been preserved with partially
healed tooth marks that
may have been caused by an attacking Dinocrocuta.
Further reading
- Nashorner der Hipparion-fauna Nord-Chinas. -
Palaeontologia
Sinica 1 (4): 1–159. - T. Ringström - 1924.
- Sexual Dimorphism in Perissodactyl Rhinocerotid Chilotherium
wimani
from the Late Miocene of the Linxia Basin (Gansu, China). -
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 55 (4): 587–97. - Shaokun
Chen, Tao Deng, Sukuan Hou, Qinqin Shi.
- A primitive species of Chilotherium
(Perissodactyla,
Rhinocerotidae) from the Late Miocene of the Linxia Basin (Gansu,
China). - Cainozoic Research 5(1/2):93-102.. - Tao
Deng - 2006.
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