The postcranial variability of Quaternary European rhinoceroses: the case study of Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis from the Middle Pleistocene site of Contrada Monticelli (Apulia, southern Italy)

ABSTRACT

Five rhinoceros species, mainly distinguishable through cranial, mandibular and dental morphology, were recognized during the Quaternary across Europe. The postcranial morphology of these taxa is quite variable, with strong superposition among species, especially between Stephanorhinus etruscus and Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis. Here, the complete sample including 25 postcranial bones from the early Middle Pleistocene site of Contrada Monticelli (Apulia, southern Italy) is described and compared through morphological and biometric analyses. A few bones, in addition to cranial and mandibular remains from this site, have been previously referred to Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis. We explored the morphological variability of Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis from Contrada Monticelli against the diagnostic characters described in the literature. The size variation of the Contrada Monticelli sample is also investigated, through a comparison with other Quaternary European rhinoceros samples. Our results indicate a wide morphological variability with several distinct characters and a strong morphological affinity between Stephanorhinus etruscus and S. hundsheimensis. Our results suggest that Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis from Contrada Monticelli is a species with a high degree of intraspecific variability, possibly a hybrid population or a population including two morphotypes of the same species.

KEYWORDS:

• Quaternary rhinoceroses
• Mediterranean Europe
• biochronology
• anatomy
• Early-middle Pleistocene transition

Author contributions

Conceptualization: Marzia Breda, Beniamino Mecozzi, Dario Stefanelli

Data curation: Beniamino Mecozzi, Dario Stefanelli

Formal analysis: Dario Stefanelli

acquisition: Maria Marino, Beniamino Mecozzi, Raffaele Sardella

Investigation: Beniamino Mecozzi, Dario Stefanelli

Methodology: Marzia Breda, Beniamino Mecozzi, Dario Stefanelli

Supervision: Marzia Breda, Maria Marino, Raffaele Sardella

Visualization: Dario Stefanelli

Writing – original draft: Marzia Breda, Beniamino Mecozzi, Dario Stefanelli

Writing – review & editing: Marzia Breda, Maria Marino, Beniamino Mecozzi, Raffaele Sardella, Dario Stefanelli

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Panagiotis Kampouridis and the other two anonymous reviewers for their insightful and useful comments and suggestions which greatly improved the manuscript. DS is grateful to the Museo di Scienze della Terra and Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambinetali (University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy) for the facilitation to access the Museum and to study the fossil sample from Contrada Monticelli. DS thanks Ursula Göhlich, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Vienna for the access to the holotype fossil of Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis.

BM thanks Linda Riti and Michele Macrì for the access to the fossils from Vitinia stored at University Museum of Earth Science, Sapienza University of Rome (Rome, central Italy) and Maria Carmela Del Re for the access to the sample from Melpignano, stored at the Museum of Paleontology of the University of Naples Federico II.

BM and DS thanks Gabriella Margiotta and Enrica Maria Muci for the access to the fossils from Cardamone kept at the State Institute of Higher Education “Galilei-Costa-Scarambone” (Lecce, southern Italy).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2024.2328276.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financially supported by Geoscience PhD scholarship to DS (Bari University-Italy), and by fund “FrancescangeltCTCAVAPONT2022” to MM (Bari University-Italy) and Project S S72 – CUP H91I21001740006 Musei scientifici green, strumento di benessere sociale e crescita economica” to MM (Bari University-Italy).This work was funded by the grants Sapienza Università di Roma Grandi Scavi 2019 [SA11916B513E7C4B], 2020 [SA120172B2C05E68], 2021 [SA12117A87BC3F0A] and 2022 [SA1221816893E2AB] to RS (Sapienza Università di Roma), “Progetti per Avvio alla Ricerca - Tipo 2 anno 2022”, Sapienza Università di Roma [AR222181333C1B88], and Regione Lazio “Contributi premiali per i ricercatori e assegnisti di ricerca per rafforzarne la condizione professionale e potenziare il sistema della ricerca del Lazio” [DE G05411, 05/05/2022] to BM.