In China, paleontologists have found the remains of a giant rhino, one of the largest mammals ever to exist on Earth

The remains of a giant rhino have been found in China, weighing four African elephants and taller than a giraffe. It is one of the largest mammals to have appeared on Earth

He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

The remains of a giant rhino have been found in China, weighing four African elephants and taller than a giraffe. It is one of the largest mammals to have appeared on Earth

The discovery of some fossils in China could serve to rewrite some of the geological history. In the Linxia basin, in the province of Gansu (northeastern border of the Tibetan plateau), a team of Chinese paleontologists have unearthed the remains of a gigantic rhino that lived about 26,5 million years ago, during theOligocene. It is one of the largest mammals ever to exist on Earth. The Beijing Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology will lead the interesting study, published in the journal Communications Biology.

Heavier than four African elephants and taller than a giraffe

The newly identified species takes the name of Paraceratherium linxiaense and its considerable size amazed the experts themselves. As revealed by the team of paleontologists, the prehistoric animal was 8 meters long and weighed up to 24 tons, four times that of an African elephant. 

The hornless head of the creature was 7 meters long and, therefore, could extend higher than today's giraffes. Given its height, the animal was able to graze even the tops of the highest trees, unattainable for most of the other species. From the fossils found, in excellent condition, it is clear that this giant rhinoceros had a slender skull and a prehensile nasal trunk much like that of tapirs. 

@Communications Biology

The giant rhinoceros Paraceratherium is considered one of the largest land mammals that ever lived and inhabited mainly the Asian territories, in particular the areas where China, Kazakhstan and Pakistan are found today. Now the exceptional finding of this specimen of Paraceratherium linxiaense will provide scholars with a series of valuable clues on the dispersion of giant rhinos in Asia. The researchers found that Paraceratherium linxiaense was related to other extinct species of Asian giant rhinos, but was characterized by a more flexible neck.

The late tropical conditions of the Oligocene allowed the giant rhino to move north into Central Asia, meaning Tibet was not yet a high-altitude plateau, experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences explain. - The topographical possibility that the giant rhino crossed the Tibetan area to reach the Indian-Pakistani subcontinent in the Oligocene can also be supported by other evidence. Until the late Oligocene, evolution and migration from P. bugtiense to P. linxiaense and P. lepidum show that the Tibetan plateau did not yet constitute a barrier to the movement of the largest terrestrial mammal.

Fonte: Communications Biology

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