Rhinotitan
| Rhinotitan Temporal range:
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|---|---|
| Skeletal mount, Paleozoological Museum of China. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Perissodactyla |
| Family: | †Brontotheriidae |
| Genus: | †Rhinotitan Granger and Gregory, 1943 |
| Species[1] | |
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Rhinotitan (nose giant) is an extinct genus of brontothere from the Eocene of Mongolia, with two valid species, R. andrewsi and R. kaiseni.[1] The genus included medium to large brontotheres which had long skulls with nasal horns. Like other solid-horned brontotheres, Rhinotitan was sexually dimorphic in horn size. In living mammals, this pattern is found in species that live in groups; males have the larger horns, and use them in ritualized combats with other males to decide control of territories that offer breeding access to females. Most horned brontotheres had dish-shaped skulls assumed to be adapted for such combats. However, the skull of Rhinotitan was concave only near the front; the top and back of the skull was rounded in a way similar to hornless brontotheres. The functional significance of this character is unknown.[2]
It weighed 1.5 tons. Tooth analysis indicates that, like other brontotheres, it was a herbivore adapted to browse on leaves.
References
- ^ a b Mihlbachler, Matthew C. (2008). "Species Taxonomy, Phylogeny, and Biogeography of the Brontotheriidae (Mammalia: Perissodactyla)". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 501. doi:10.1206/0003-0090(2008)501[1:STPABO]2.0.CO;2.
- ^ Grainger, Walter and William B. Gregory (1943). "Article X.-A REVISION OF THE MONGOLIAN TITANOTHERES" (PDF). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 80: 349–89.
- Classification of Mammals by Malcolm C. McKenna and Susan K. Bell