Information about Rhinocerotidae

Rhinoceros Fossil range: Eocene - Recent
Black Rhinoceros, Diceros Bicornis Black Rhinoceros, Diceros Bicornis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Perissodactyla Family: Rhinocerotidae Gray, 1821
Extant Genera
Ceratotherium Dicerorhinus Diceros Rhinoceros Extinct genera, see text

The rhinoceros (IPA: /raɪˈnɒsərəs/), or rhino, is any of five surviving species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia. Three of the five species are critically endangered, and another, the Indian Rhinoceros, is endangered.

The family is characterised by large size (one of the few remaining megafauna surviving today) with all of the species capable of reaching one ton or more in weight; herbivorous diet; and a thick protective skin, 1.5-5 cm thick, formed from layers of collagen positioned in a lattice structure; relatively small brains for mammals this size (400-600g); and its horn. The rhino is prized for its horn. The horns of a Rhinoceros are made of keratin, the same type of protein that makes up hair, but the horn is not itself made of hair as some have believed[1]. Rhinoceros also have acute hearing and sense of smell, but poor eyesight. Most rhinoceros live to be about 50 years old or more. The collective noun for a group of rhinoceros is "crash".

Both African species and the Sumatran Rhinoceros have two horns, while the Indian and Javan Rhinoceros have a single horn.

Taxonomy and naming

The word "rhinoceros" (ρινόκερος) is derived from the Greek words rhino, meaning nose, and kera, meaning horn; hence "horned-nose". The plural can be rhinoceros, rhinoceri, rhinoceroses, or rhinoceroi. A group of rhinos is called a crash.

The five living species fall into three categories. The two African species, the White Rhinoceros and the Black Rhinoceros, diverged during the early Pliocene (about 5 million years ago) but the Dicerotini group to which they belong originated in the middle Miocene, about 14 million years ago. The main difference between black and white rhinos is the shape of their mouths. White rhinos have broad flat lips for grazing and black rhinos have long pointed lips for eating foliage. The name White Rhinoceros was actually a mistake, or rather a corruption of the word wijd (wide in Afrikaans) because of their square lips. White Rhinoceros are divided into Northern and Southern subspecies. There are two living Rhinocerotini species, the endangered Indian Rhinoceros and the critically endangered Javan Rhinoceros, which diverged from one another about 10 million years ago. The critically endangered Sumatran Rhinoceros is the only surviving representative of the most primitive group, the Dicerorhinini, which emerged in the Miocene (about 20 million years ago).^[1] The extinct Woolly Rhinoceros of northern Europe and Asia was also a member of this tribe.

A subspecific hybrid white rhino (Ceratotherium s. simum × C. s. cottoni) was bred at the Dvůr Králové Zoo (Zoological Garden Dvur Kralove nad Labem) in the Czech Republic in 1977. Interspecific hybridisation of Black and White Rhinoceros has also been confirmed.^[2]

White Rhinoceros

Main article: White Rhinoceros

The White Rhinoceros or Square-lipped Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) is, behind the elephant, probably the most massive remaining land animal in the world, along with the Indian Rhinoceros which is of comparable size and some male hippopotamuses. There are two subspecies of White Rhinos; as of 2005, South Africa has the most of the first subspecies, the Southern White Rhino (Ceratotherium simum simum). The population of southern white rhinos is about 11,600, making them the most abundant subspecies of rhino in the world, and the White Rhino the most abundant species.

The White Rhino has a massive body and large head, a short neck and broad chest. This rhino can exceed 6000 pounds, have a head-and-body length of 3.35-4.2 m (11-13.9 feet) and a shoulder height of 150-185 cm (60-73 inches). The record-sized White Rhinoceros was about 3600 kg. On its snout it has two horns. The front horn is larger that the other horn and averages 89.9 cm (23.6 inches) in length and can reach 150 cm (59 inches). The White Rhinoceros also has a noticeable hump on the back of its neck which supports its large head. The colour of this animal ranges from yellowish brown to slate grey. The only hair on them is on the ear fringes and tail bristles. White Rhinos have the distinctive flat broad mouth which is used for grazing.

Black Rhinoceros

Main article: Black Rhinoceros

The name of the species was chosen to distinguish it from the White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum). This is confusing, as those two species are not really distinguishable by colour. There are four subspecies of black rhino: South-central (Diceros bicornis minor), the most numerous, which once ranged from central Tanzania south through Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to northern and eastern South Africa; South-western (Diceros bicornis bicornis) which are better adapted to the arid and semi-arid savannas of Namibia, southern Angola, western Botswana and western South Africa; East African (Diceros bicornis michaeli), primarily in Tanzania; and West African(Diceros bicornis longipes) which was tentatively declared extinct in 2006.^[3]

An adult Black Rhinoceros stands 147–160 cm (57.9–63 inches) high at the shoulder and is 3.3-3.6 m (10.8–11.8 feet) in length.^[4] An adult weighs from 800 to 1400 kg (1,760 to 3,080 lb), exceptionally to 1820 kg (4,000 lb), with the females being smaller than the males. Two horns on the skull are made of keratin with the larger front horn typically 50 cm long, exceptionally up to 140 cm. Sometimes, a third smaller horn may develop. The Black Rhino is much smaller than the White Rhino, and has a pointed mouth, which they use to grasp leaves and twigs when feeding.

Indian Rhinoceros

Main article: Indian Rhinoceros

The Indian Rhinoceros or the Great One-horned Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) is found in Nepal and in Assam, India. The rhino once inhabited areas from Pakistan to Burma and may have even roamed in China. But because of human influence their range has shrunk and now they only exist in small populations in northeastern India and Nepal. It is confined to the tall grasslands and forests in the foothills of the Himalayas.

The Indian Rhinoceros has thick, silver-brown skin which creates huge folds all over its body. Its upper legs and shoulders are covered in wart-like bumps, and it has very little body hair. Its size is comparable to that of the White Rhino in Africa. Fully grown males are larger than females in the wild, weighing from 2200–3000 kg (4,800–6,600 lb). Female Indian rhinos weigh about 1600 kg. The Indian Rhino is from 5.7–6.7 feet tall and can be up to 13 feet long. The record-sized specimen of this rhino was approximately 3500 kg. The Indian Rhino has a single horn that reaches a length of between 20 and 101 cm.

Javan Rhinoceros

Main article: Javan Rhinoceros

The Javan Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus) is one of the rarest and most endangered large mammals anywhere in the world.^[5] According to 2002 estimates, only about 60 remain alive, in Java, Indonesia and Vietnam. Of all the rhino species, the least is known of the Javan Rhino. These animals prefer dense lowland rain forest, tall grass and reed beds that are plentiful with large floodplains and mud wallows. Though once widespread throughout Asia, by the 1930's the rhinoceros was nearly hunted to extinction in India, Burma, Peninsular Malaysia, and Sumatra for the medical powers of its horn and blood.

Like the closely related larger Indian Rhinoceros, the Javan rhinoceros has only a single horn. Its hairless, hazy gray skin fall into folds into the shoulder, back, and rump giving it an armored-like appearance. The Javan rhino's body length reaches up to 3.1-3.2 m (10-10.5 feet), including its head and a height of 1.5–1.7 m tall. Adults are variously reported to weigh between 900–1,400 kg^[6] or 1,360-2,000 kg.^[7] Males horns can reach 26 cm in length while in females they are knobs or no horn at all.^[7]

Sumatran Rhinoceros

Main article: Sumatran Rhinoceros

The Sumatran Rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is the smallest extant rhinoceros species, as well as the one with the most fur, which allows it to survive at very high altitudes in Borneo and Sumatra. Due to habitat loss and poaching, its numbers have declined and it is one of the world's rarest mammals. About 300 Sumatran Rhinos are believed to remain.

Typically a mature Sumatran rhino stands about 130 cm high at the shoulder, a body length of 240–315 cm and weighs around 700 kg, though the largest individuals have been known to weigh as much as 1,000 kilograms. Like the African species, it has two horns, the largest is the front (25–79 cm) and the smaller being the second which is usually less than 10 cm long. The males have much larger horns than the females. Hair can range from dense (the most dense hair in young calves) to scarce. The color of these rhinos are reddish brown. The body is short and has stubby legs. They also have a prehensile lip.

Evolution

Rhinocerotoids first diverged from other Perissodactyls in at least the Early Eocene. Fossils of Hyrachus eximus found in North America date to this period. This small ancestor resembled a tapir or small horse, more than a rhino, and had no horn. Three families, sometimes grouped together as the superfamily Rhinocerotoidea, evolved in the Late Eocene: Hyracodontidae, Amynodontidae and Rhinocerotidae.

Hyracontidae, also known as "running rhinos," showed adaptations for speed, and would have looked more like horses than modern rhinos. The smallest Hyracontidae were dog-sized; the largest was Indricotherium, believed to be the largest land-mammal that ever existed. The hornless Indricotherium was almost six meters high, nine meters long, and weighed as much as 20 tonnes. Like a giraffe, it ate leaves from trees. The Hyracontids spread across Eurasia from the mid-Eocene to early Miocene.

The Amynodontidae family, also known as "aquatic rhinos," dispersed across North America and Eurasia, from the Late Eocene to early Oligocene. The Amynodontids were hippopotamus-like in their ecology and appearance, inhabiting rivers and lakes, and sharing many of the same adaptations to aquatic life as hippos.

The family of all the modern rhinoceroses, the Rhinocerotidae, first appeared in the Late Eocene in Eurasia. The earliest members of Rhinocerotidae were small and numerous; at least 26 genera lived in Eurasia and North America until a wave of extinctions in the middle Oligocene wiped out most of the smaller species. Several independent lineages survived, however. Menoceras, a pig-sized rhinoceros which had two horns side-by-side or the Teloeceras of North America which had short legs and a barrel chest and lived until about 5 million years ago. The last rhinos in America became extinct during the pliocene.

Modren rhinos are believed to have dispersed from Asia beginning in the Miocene. Two species survived the most recent period of glaciation and inhabited Europe as recently as 10,000 years ago. The Woolly Rhinoceros appeared in China around 1 million years ago and first arrived in Europe around 600,000 years ago and again 200,000 years ago, where alongside the Woolly Mammoth, they became numerous but eventually were hunted to extinction by early humans. Another species of enormous rhino, Elasmotherium, survived the last ice age. Also known as the giant unicorn rhinoceros, Elasmotherium was two meters tall, five meters long and weighed around five tons, with a single enormous horn, hypsodont teeth and long legs for running.

Of the extant rhinoceros species, the Sumatran Rhino is the most archaic, first emerging more than 15 million years ago. The Sumatran Rhino was closely related to the Woolly Rhinoceros, but not to the other modern species. The Indian Rhino and Javan Rhino are closely related and from a more recent lineage of Asian rhino. The ancestors of early Indian and Javan rhino emerged 2-4 million years ago.

The lineage of rhinos in Africa is less clear. The black and white rhinoceros remain so closely related that they can still mate and successfully produce offspring. The black rhinoceros is believed to be the oldest of the species, first emerging between 4 and 10 million years ago, and the white rhinoceros diverging from within the black rhinos between 2 and 5 million years ago.^[8]

• Family Rhinocerotidae
• Subfamily Rhinocerotinae
• Tribe Aceratheriini
• Aceratherium (extinct)
• Acerorhinus (extinct)
• Alicornops (extinct)
• Aphelops (extinct)
• Chilotheridium (extinct)
• Chilotherium (extinct)
• Dromoceratherium (extinct)
• Floridaceras (extinct)
• Hoploaceratherium (extinct)
• Mesaceratherium (extinct)
• Peraceras (extinct)
• Plesiaceratherium (extinct)
• Proaceratherium (extinct)
• Sinorhinus (extinct)
• Subchilotherium (extinct)
• Tribe Teleoceratini
• Aprotodon (extinct)
• Brachydiceratherium (extinct)
• Brachypodella (extinct)
• Brachypotherium (extinct)
• Diaceratherium (extinct)
• Prosantorhinus (extinct)
• Shennongtherium (extinct)
• Teleoceras (extinct)
• Tribe Rhinocerotini
• Gaindatherium (extinct)
• Rhinoceros - Indian & Javan Rhinoceros
• Tribe Dicerorhinini
• Coelodonta - Woolly Rhinoceros (extinct)
• Dicerorhinus - Sumatran Rhinoceros
• Dihoplus (extinct)
• Lartetotherium (extinct)
• Stephanorhinus (extinct)
• Tribe Ceratotheriini
• Ceratotherium - White Rhinoceros
• Tribe Dicerotini
• Diceros - Black Rhinoceros
• Paradiceros (extinct)
• Subfamily Elasmotheriinae
• Gulfoceras (extinct)
• Tribe Diceratheriini
• Diceratherium (extinct)
• Subhyracodon (extinct)
• Tribe Elasmotheriini
• Bugtirhinus (extinct)
• Caementodon (extinct)
• Elasmotherium - Giant Unicorn (extinct)
• Hispanotherium (extinct)
• Huaqingtherium (extinct)
• Iranotherium (extinct)
• Kenyatherium (extinct)
• Menoceras (extinct)
• Ougandatherium (extinct)
• Parelasmotherium (extinct)
• Procoelodonta (extinct)
• Sinotherium (extinct)

Rhinoceros horns

The most obvious distinguishing characteristic of the rhinos is a large horn above the nose. Rhinoceros horns, unlike those of other horned mammals, consist of keratin only and lacks a bony core, such as bovine horns. Rhinoceros horns are used in traditional Asian medicine, and for dagger handles in Yemen and Oman.

One repeated fallacy is that rhinoceros horn in powdered form is used as an aphrodisiac in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It is, in fact, prescribed for life-threatening fevers and convulsions and has been clinically shown to have fever-reducing properties.^[9] This misunderstanding has interfered with discussions with TCM practitioners to reduce its use since the TCM doctors see it as a life-saving medicine of last resort after cheaper substitutes like water buffalo horn are exhausted. China has signed the CITES treaty however. To prevent poaching, in certain areas rhinos have been tranquillized and their horns removed.

Cultural depictions of rhinos

There are a number of legends about rhinoceroses stamping out fire. The story seems to have been common in Malaysia, India, and Burma. This type of rhinoceros even had a special name in Malay, badak api, where badak means rhinoceros and api means fire. The animal would come when a fire is lit in the forest and stamp it out. Whether or not there is any truth to this has not yet been proven, as there has been no documented sighting of this phenomenon in recent history. This lack of evidence may stem from the fact that rhinoceros sightings overall in south-east Asia have become very rare, largely due to widespread poaching of the critically endangered animal. This legend is featured prominently in the film The Gods Must Be Crazy as well as on an episode of The Simpsons.

In the novel James and the Giant Peach by author Roald Dahl, the main character's parents are supposedly eaten by a rhinoceros that had escaped from the London Zoo. In actuality, Rhinoceros are herbivores.

Albrecht Dürer created a famous woodcut of a rhinoceros in 1515, without ever seeing the animal depicted. As a result, Dürer's Rhinoceros is rather inaccurate.

Footnotes

References

• id="CITEREFCerdeño1995">Cerdeño, Esperanza (1995), "Cladistic Analysis of the Family Rhinocerotidae (Perissodactyla)", Novitates (American Museum of Natural History) (no. 3143), ISSN 0003-0082, <[2]
  • Chapman, January 1999. The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China. Christies Books, London. ISBN 0-903432-57-9.
  • id="CITEREFEmslie1999">Emslie, R. and Brooks, M. (1999), African Rhino. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan., IUCN/SSC African Rhino Specialist Group. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK, ISBN 2831705029
    • id="CITEREFFoose1997">Foose, Thomas J. and van Strien, Nico (1997), Asian Rhinos – Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan., IUCN, Gland, Switzerland, and Cambridge, UK, ISBN 2-8317-0336-0
      • id="CITEREFHieronymus2006">Hieronymus, Tobin L. (2006), "Structure of White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) Horn Investigated by X-ray Computed Tomography and Histology With Implications for Growth and External Form", Journal of Morphology 267: 1172-1176, <[3]
        • Laufer, Berthold. 1914. "History of the Rhinoceros." In: Chinese Clay Figures, Part I: Prolegomena on the History of Defence Armour. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, pp. 73-173.
        • Parry-Jone, Rob and Amanda Vincent. "Can we tame wild medicine? To save a rare species, Western conservationists may have to make their peace with traditional Chinese medicine.", New Scientist, January 3, 1998.1998"> 

        External links

        • Rhinoceros Information
        • International Rhino Foundation
        • The Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya
        • SOS Rhino
        • Save the Rhino
        • Rhinoceros entry on World Wide Fund for Nature website.
        • Rhino photographs and information
        The Eocene epoch (55.8 ± 0.2 - 33.9 ± 0.1 Ma) is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Palaeogene period in the Cenozoic era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene epoch.
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        Diceros
        
        Species: D. bicornis
        
        Binomial name
        Diceros bicornis
        Linnaeus, 1758
        
        

        Black Rhinoceros range

        
        ..... Click the link for more information.
        Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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        Chordata
        Bateson, 1885
        
        Typical Classes
        
        See below
        
        Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
        ..... Click the link for more information.
        Mammalia
        Linnaeus, 1758
        
        Subclasses & Infraclasses
        

        • Subclass †Allotheria*
        • Subclass Prototheria
        • Subclass Theria

        
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        Perissodactyla
        Owen, 1848
        
        Families
        
        Equidae
        Tapiridae
        Rhinocerotidae
        Brontotheriidae (extinct)
        Chalicotheriidae (extinct)
        Hyracodontidae (extinct)
        Palaeotheriidae (extinct)
        Amynodontidae (extinct)
        
        The odd-toed ungulates
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        John Edward Gray
        
        Born January 12 1800(1800--)
        Walsall, England
        Died March 07 1875 (aged 75)
        
        Nationality British
        ..... Click the link for more information.
        genus (plural: genera) is part of the Latinized name for an organism. It is a name which reflects the classification of the organism by grouping it with other closely similar organisms.
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        Ceratotherium
        
        Species: C. simum
        
        Binomial name
        Ceratotherium simum
        Burchell, 1817
        
        

        
        ..... Click the link for more information.
        Dicerorhinus
        Gloger, 1841
        
        Species: D. sumatrensis
        
        Binomial name
        Dicerorhinus sumatrensis
        Fischer, 1814
        
        

        
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        Diceros
        
        Species: D. bicornis
        
        Binomial name
        Diceros bicornis
        Linnaeus, 1758
        
        

        Black Rhinoceros range

        
        ..... Click the link for more information.
        Rhinoceros unicornis)]]
        

        Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis)

        
        
        Scientific classification
        
        Kingdom: Animalia
        
        Phylum: Chordata
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        This chart shows concisely the most common way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is applied to represent the English language.
        
        See International Phonetic Alphabet for English for a more complete version and Pronunciation respelling for English for phonetic
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        Perissodactyla
        Owen, 1848
        
        Families
        
        Equidae
        Tapiridae
        Rhinocerotidae
        Brontotheriidae (extinct)
        Chalicotheriidae (extinct)
        Hyracodontidae (extinct)
        Palaeotheriidae (extinct)
        Amynodontidae (extinct)
        
        The odd-toed ungulates
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        family (Latin: familia, plural familiae) is a rank, or a taxon in that rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Code which applies.
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        Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30,221,532 km² (11,668,545 sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area, and 20.4% of the total land area.
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        Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area (or 29.4% of its land area) and, with almost 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population.
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        R. unicornis
        
        Binomial name
        Rhinoceros unicornis
        (Linnaeus, 1758)
        
        

        Indian Rhinoceros range

        
        
        The Indian Rhinoceros or the Great One-horned Rhinoceros
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        Megafauna are species of large animals (Greek μεγας, large, + modern Latin fauna, animal). The standard definition includes animals with an average body weight exceeding 100 lb (44 kg) ^[1][2][3].
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        ton:

        1. long ton (simply ton in countries such as the United Kingdom which formerly used the Imperial system of weights and measures) is a weight ton or gross ton, and is 2,240 lb (exactly 1,016.0469088 kg).

        
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        Herbivory is a form of predation in which an organism known as an herbivore, consumes principally autotrophs^[1] such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria.
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        Collagen is the main protein of connective tissue in animals and the most abundant protein in mammals, ^[1] making up about 25% of the total protein content.

        Uses

        
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        Lattice may refer to:

        • Latticework an ornamental and/or structural criss-crossed framework, an arrangement of crossing laths or other thin strips of material
        • Kagome lattice

        
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        Keratins are a family of fibrous structural proteins; tough and insoluble, they form the hard but nonmineralized structures found in reptiles, birds, amphibians and mammals. They are rivaled as biological materials in toughness only by chitin.
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        Hair is a filamentous outgrowth of protein, found only on mammals. It projects from the epidermis, though it grows from hair follicles deep in the dermis. Although many other organisms, especially insects, show filamentous outgrowths, these are not considered "hair".
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        collective noun is a word used to define a group of objects, where "objects" can be people, animals, inanimate things, concepts, or other things. For example, in the phrase "a pride of lions", pride is a collective noun.
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        Dicerorhinus
        Gloger, 1841
        
        Species: D. sumatrensis
        
        Binomial name
        Dicerorhinus sumatrensis
        Fischer, 1814
        
        

        
        ..... Click the link for more information.
        R. sondaicus
        
        Binomial name
        Rhinoceros sondaicus
        Desmarest, 1822
        
        

        Javan Rhinoceros Range^[2]

        
        
        Subspecies
        
        
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        Ancient Greek refers to the second stage in the history of the Greek language^[1] as it existed during the Archaic (9th–6th centuries BC) and Classical (5th–4th centuries BC) periods in Greece.
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