Reassessment of the largest Pleistocene rhinocerotine Rhinoceros platyrhinus (Mammalia, Rhinocerotidae) from the Upper Siwaliks (Siwalik Hills, India)

ABSTRACT

We describe and figure a well-preserved, large skull of a rhinoceros, NHMUK 36661, collected in 1860 from Upper Siwalik deposits. This specimen can be referred to Rhinoceros platyrhinus. Comparison with the type material of R. platyrhinus revealed that several specimens previously referred to this taxon, including the lectotype, should instead be assigned to Rhinoceros sp. (potentially R. sivalensis or R. unicornis). Therefore, we here provide new detailed cranial and dental characters for R. platyrhinus, which is currently known only by a few specimens collected from a restricted area of northern India. We suggest that the generic name Punjabitherium erected for R. platyrhinus represents a junior synonym of Rhinoceros due to the morphological affinities of NHMUK 36661 with R. unicornis. A principal component analysis and a cluster analysis confirmed the morphological similarities between R. platyrhinus and R. unicornis. Rhinoceros platyrhinus represents the largest rhinocerotine species in Eurasia and is characterized by a long skull and high-crowned teeth, suggesting that it was a grazer rather than a mixed feeder such as R. unicornis. This is supported by a cluster analysis on the upper teeth. The progressive increase in aridity from ca. 12 Ma to Recent in northern India could have affected the dietary regime of R. platyrhinus towards to a more grazer-like diet.

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Citation for this article: Pandolfi, L., and L. Maiorino. 2016. Reassessment of the largest Pleistocene rhinocerotine Rhinoceros platyrhinus (Mammalia, Rhinocerotidae) from the Upper Siwaliks (Siwalik Hills, India). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2015.1071266.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank P. Agnelli (Museo di Storia Naturale, sezione di Zoologia ‘La Specola’), C. Argot and J. Cusin (Musèum National d'Histoire Naturelle), E. Bodor (Geological and Geophysical Institute of Hungary), P. Brewer and R. Portela-Miguez (NHMUK), E. Cioppi (Museo di Storia Naturale, sezione di Geologia-Paleontologia), L. Costeur (Naturhistorisches Museum Basel), F. Farsi (Museo di Storia Naturale Accademia dei Fisiocritici), T. Engel (Naturhistorisches Museum Mainz), M. Fornasiero (Museo di Geologia e Paleontologia di Padova), E. Frey (Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlruhe), M. Gasparik (Hungarian Natural History Museum), U. Göhlich (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien), R. D. Kahlke (Institut für Quartärpaläontologie), R. Kraft (Zoologische Staatssammlung Munich), K. Kromann (Senckenberg Naturmuseum, Frankfurt), O. Hampe (Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin), R. Manni (Museo di Paleontologia di Roma), P. Monegatti (Museo Paleontologico Parmense), P. Pérez Dios (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales), G. Rössner (Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, Munich), C. Sarti (Museo di Geologia Giovanni Capellini), and R. Ziegler (Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart) for their help and assistance during the visits to study the rhinoceros fossil collections. L.P. thanks the European Commission's Research Infrastructure Action, EU-SYNTHESYS projects AT-TAF-2550, DE-TAF-3049, GB-TAF-2825, HU-TAF-3593, and ES-TAF-2997. Part of this research received support from the SYNTHESYS Project http://www.synthesys.info/, which is financed by European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP7 ‘Capacities’ Program. We are also grateful to G. Sansalone for useful suggestions.