Paraceratherium
Name:
Paraceratherium
(Near horn beast).
Phonetic: Pa-ra-cee-ra-fee-ree-um.
Named By: Sir Clive Forster Cooper - 1911.
Synonyms: Aceratherium bugtiense,
Aralotherium, Baluchitherium,
Dzungariotherium, Indricotherium, Thaumastotherium.
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia,
Perissodactyla, Hyracodontidae, Indricotheriinae.
Species: P. bugtiense
(type), P. huangheense, P.
orgosense, P. prohorovi, P. transouralicum, P.
zhajremensis.
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Largest species up to 4.8 meters high at
the shoulder.
Known locations: China, India, Kazakhsatn and
Pakistan.
Time period: Priabonian of the Oligocene through to
Chattian of the Oligocene.
Fossil representation: Several specimens but usually
of incomplete remains.
To
begin
we’ll address the on-going confusion between the validity of the names
Paraceratherium, Indricotherium
and Baluchitherium. These are all
separate genera’s established as homes for fossil material belonging to
huge terrestrial mammals that are very similar to one another in form.
In fact they are so similar that many palaeontologists consider them
to be the same animal, and Baluchitherium at
least is now universally
regarded as a synonym to Paraceratherium. More
confusion comes from
the names Paraceratherium and Indricotherium
as both have appeared
frequently in popular media such as books, television shows, and
websites, as well as Indricotherium actually
being the type
genus to the group which Paraceratherium is classed
under.
However
later study,
principally by S. G. Lucas and J. C. Sobus in 1989, has
been finding that Paraceratherium and Indricotherium
are actually one
and the same animal. The important thing to realise here is that
Paraceratherium was named first in 1911, while Indricotherium
was
named in 1915. Unless a case along the lines of an older name not
being recognised for such a long time (as happened with the dinosaur
Tyrannosaurus)
can be established the oldest name must always have
priority over any subsequent namings. However given the frequent
exposure that Paraceratherium has received since
its discovery and
naming, this today would be impossible. To this end those who
recognise Indricotherium to be the same animal as Paraceratherium,
treat it as a synonym to the latter thus labelling the material as
Paraceratherium transouralicum (from the original Indricotherium
transouralicum). Controversial renaming is nothing new
in
palaeontology and perhaps the best analogy to use here is that of the
dinosaur Apatosaurus,
which today is still sometimes referred to as
Brontosaurus by those who don’t know their history.
Naming
controversy is not the
only problem that Paraceratherium has had to
overcome since its
discovery. Initially only the skull of Paraceratherium
was known to
science and in form it led many of the palaeontologists of the day to
draw similarities between it and the skull of a rhino. Although the
fossils were not yet known, the rest of the animal was assumed to be
rhino like upon this observation. The earliest reconstructions were
of a large rhino like creature, no horn as there was no attachment
point for one, a large heavily built body with a tough hide supported
by four squat legs. However further discoveries gradually allowed for
a more accurate construction to be pieced together, with the most
critical discovery being that of the legs which revealed a more
gracile, but more importantly a longer, taller build. Today
Paraceratherium is reconstructed as a giraffe like
animal, but with a
substantially more robust build than that of the giraffes we know
today. Despite this analysis Paraceratherium is
still more popularly
regarded as being related to rhinos.
Paraceratherium
remains today
as the largest terrestrial (land) mammal ever known to exist.
This has been confirmed by the discovery of the largest species,
Paraceratherium orgosensis from China. The large
size of
Paraceratherium meant that it would have been quite
comfortable living
the life of a high browser, feeding from the tree canopy. Again
this is another similarity to a giraffe, this time in terms of an
ecological niche as by browsing tall growing vegetation,
Paraceratherium could exist and not compete with
the multitude of
smaller herbivorous animals that could not reach so high. The long
legs of Paraceratherium supported the weight of the
body from
underneath like columns and because of their longer length allowing for
a bigger stride, would have allowed for more energy efficient
locomotion over longer distances.
It
is popularly thought that
Paraceratherium had muscular lips that allowed it to
grip and
manipulate food before placing it in its mouth. This is supported by
the shape of the forward portions of the skull which is similar to
other animals that have such an adaptation. Paraceratherium
also had
two pairs on enlarged incisor teeth, the pair in the upper jaw
pointing downwards while the lower pair projected slightly forwards.
This may have been an adaptation for holding branches steady in the
mouth while the lips manipulated the digestible parts from them.
Further reading
- Paraceratherium bugtiense, a new genus of Rhinocerotidae from the
Bugti Hills of Baluchistan. Preliminary notice. - Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.
8 (8): 711–716. - Clive Forster Cooper - 1911.
- The largest land mammal ever imagined. - Zoological Journal of the
Linnean Society (107): 85–101. - Mikael Fortelius & Jonh
Keppelman - 1993.
- New remains of the baluchithere Paraceratherium bugtiense (Pilgrim,
1910) from the Late/latest Oligocene of the Bugti hills, Balochistan,
Pakistan - Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 24: 71–77. - Pierre-Olivier
Antoine, Dario de Franceschi, S.M. Ibrahim Shah, Laurent Marivaux,
Iqbal U. Cheema, Gre�goire Me�tais, Jean-Yves Crochet &
Jean-Loup Welcomme - 2004.
- Building Baluchitherium and Indricotherium: Imperial and
International Networks in Early-Twentieth Century Paleontology. -
Journal of the History of Biology (Submitted manuscript). 48 (2):
237–78. - C. Manias - 2014.
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