Dicerorhinus Explained

Dicerorhinus (Greek: "two" (dio), "horn" (keratos), "nose" (rhinos)^[1]) is a genus of the family Rhinocerotidae, consisting of a single extant species, the two-horned Sumatran rhinoceros (D. sumatrensis), and several extinct species. The genus likely originated from the Late Miocene of central Myanmar.^[2] Many species previously placed in this genus probably belong elsewhere.

Taxonomy

Species provisionally considered valid include:

• †Dicerorhinus fusuiensis^{[3] [4]} originally described as Rhinoceros fusuiensis^[5] Early Pleistocene, South China.
• †Dicerorhinus gwebinensis Zin-Maung-Maung-Thein et al., 2008 Known from a skull of Pliocene-Early Pleistocene age found in Myanmar.^[6] Some authors have considered the skull not distinguishable from that of D. sumatrensis.^[7]

Historically, Dicerorhinus was a wastebasket taxon. Revisions by several authors over the years have removed many species:

Transferred to Stephanorhinus

• Dicerorhinus merckii
• Dicerorhinus hemitoechus
• Dicerorhinus etruscus
• Dicerorhinus yunchuchenensis
• Dicerorhinus jeanvireti
• Dicerorhinus choukoutienensis (synonym of Merck's rhinoceros)
• Dicerorhinus orientalis (synonym of Merck's rhinoceros)
• Dicerorhinus nipponicus^[8]

Transferred to Dihoplus^[9]

• Dicerorhinus megarhinus
• Dicerorhinus schleiermacheri
• Dicerorhinus ringstroemi

Transferred to Caementodon

• Dicerorhinus caucasicus^[10]

Transferred to Lartetotherium

• Dicerorhinus sansaniensis
• Dicerorhinus cixianensis Chen and Wu, 1976^[11]

Transferred to Rusingaceros

• Dicerorhinus leakeyi

Placement of the Sumatran rhinoceros among recent and subfossil rhinoceros species based on nuclear genomes (Liu, 2021)^[12]

Bayesian morphological phylogeny (Pandolfi, 2023) Note: This excludes living African rhinoceros species.^[13]

References

• Groves, Colin P., and Fred Kurt (1972). "Dicerorhinus sumatrensis". Mammalian Species (21): 1–6.
• "A new species of Dicerorhinus (Rhinocerotidae) from the Plio-Pleistocene of Myanmar"

Notes and References

1. Web site: Glossary. American Museum of Natural History. https://web.archive.org/web/20211120123130/https://research.amnh.org/paleontology/perissodactyl/concepts/glossary. 20 November 2021.
2. Longuet . M. . Handa . N. . Zin-Maung- Maung-Thein . Thaung- Htike . Man-Thit- Nyein . Takai . M. . 2024 . Post-cranial remains of Rhinocerotidae from the Neogene of central Myanmar: morphological descriptions and comparisons with ratios . Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology . 10.1080/08912963.2024.2408617 .
3. Antoine . P.-O. . Reyes . M. C. . Amano . N. . Bautista . A. P. . Chang . C.-H. . Claude . J. . De Vos . J. . Ingicco . T. . 2021 . A new rhinoceros clade from the Pleistocene of Asia sheds light on mammal dispersals to the Philippines . Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society . 194 . 2 . 416–430 . 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab009.
4. Pandolfi . Luca . 2023-01-19 . Reassessing the phylogeny of Quaternary Eurasian Rhinocerotidae . Journal of Quaternary Science . 38 . 3 . en . 291–294 . 10.1002/jqs.3496 . 2023JQS....38..291P . 0267-8179. 11563/163194 . free .
5. Yan . Yaling . Wang . Yuan . Jin . Changzhu . Mead . Jim I. . December 2014 . New remains of Rhinoceros (Rhinocerotidae, Perissodactyla, Mammalia) associated with Gigantopithecus blacki from the Early Pleistocene Yanliang Cave, Fusui, South China . Quaternary International . en . 354 . 110–121 . 10.1016/j.quaint.2014.01.004. 2014QuInt.354..110Y .
6. Zin-Maung-Maung-Thein . Takai . Masanaru . Tsubamoto . Takehisa . Thaung-Htike . Egi . Naoko . Maung-Maung . November 2008 . A NEW SPECIES OF DICERORHINUS (RHINOCEROTIDAE) FROM THE PLIO-PLEISTOCENE OF MYANMAR . Palaeontology . en . 51 . 6 . 1419–1433 . 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00813.x.
7. Chen . Shaokun . Pang . Libo . Yan . Yaling . Wei . Guangbiao . Yue . Zongying . August 2021 . First Discovery of Dicerorhinus sumatrensis from Yanjinggou Provides Insights into the Pleistocene Rhinocerotidae of South China . Acta Geologica Sinica - English Edition . en . 95 . 4 . 1065–1072 . 10.1111/1755-6724.14719 . 1000-9515.
8. Handa . N. . Kohno . N. . Kudo . Y. . Reappraisal of a middle Pleistocene rhinocerotid (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) from the Matsugae Cave, Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan . Historical Biology . 2019 . 33 . 4 . 218–229 . 10.1080/08912963.2019.1604699. 145930245 .
9. Tong . Hao-wen . Evolution of the non-Coelodonta dicerorhine lineage in China . Comptes Rendus Palevol . 2012 . 11 . 8 . 555–562 . 10.1016/j.crpv.2012.06.002. 2012CRPal..11..555T .
10. 10.1046/j.1463-6409.2003.00106.x. Middle Miocene elasmotheriine Rhinocerotidae from China and Mongolia: Taxonomic revision and phylogenetic relationships. Zoologica Scripta. 32. 2. 95–118. 2003. Antoine . P. O. . 86800130.
11. Deng, T.; Li, S., 2023. Restudy of Rhinocerotini fossils from the Miocene Jiulongkou fauna of China. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 61: 198-211 - DOI: 10.19615/j.cnki.2096-9899.230630
12. Liu . Shanlin . Westbury . Michael V. . Dussex . Nicolas . Mitchell . Kieren J. . Sinding . Mikkel-Holger S. . Heintzman . Peter D. . Duchêne . David A. . Kapp . Joshua D. . von Seth . Johanna . Heiniger . Holly . Sánchez-Barreiro . Fátima . August 2021 . Ancient and modern genomes unravel the evolutionary history of the rhinoceros family . Cell . 184 . 19 . 4874–4885.e16 . 10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.032 . 0092-8674 . 34433011 . 237273079. free . 10230/48693 . free .
13. Pandolfi . Luca . 2023-01-19 . Reassessing the phylogeny of Quaternary Eurasian Rhinocerotidae . Journal of Quaternary Science . 38 . 3 . en . 291–294 . 10.1002/jqs.3496 . 0267-8179. free . 2023JQS....38..291P . 11563/163194 . free .