For the common rhinocerotoid family, see Rhinoceros

Rhinocerotoidea is a superfamily of perissodactyls that appeared 56 million years ago in the Paleocene. Four extinct families such as Amynodontidae, Hyracodontidae, Paraceratheriidae and Eggysodontidae, the only extant family is the Rhinocerotidae (true rhinoceroses), which survives as five living species. Extinct non-rhinocerotid members of the group are sometimes considered rhinoceroses in a broad sense. Although the term 'rhinoceroses' is sometimes used to refer to all of these, a less ambiguous vernacular term for this group is 'rhinocerotoids'. The family Paraceratheriidae contains the largest land mammals known to have ever existed.[1]

Taxonomy

The cladogram below follows a phylogenetic analysis by Bai et al. (2020):[2]

Rhinocerotoidea
(sensu lato)

References

  1. ^ Deng, T.; Lu, X.; Wang, S.; Flynn, L. J.; Sun, D.; He, W.; Chen, S. (2021). "An Oligocene giant rhino provides insights into Paraceratherium evolution". Communications Biology. 4 (1): 639. doi:10.1038/s42003-021-02170-6. PMC 8211792. PMID 34140631.
  2. ^ Bai, B.; Meng, J.; Zhang, C.; Gong, Y.-X.; Wang, Y.-Q. (2020). "The origin of Rhinocerotoidea and phylogeny of Ceratomorpha (Mammalia, Perissodactyla)". Communications Biology. 3 (1): 509. doi:10.1038/s42003-020-01205-8. PMC 7490376. PMID 32929169.