Prehistoric Rhinos - An Underrated Evolutionary Saga: World Rhino Day Part 2

Paraceratherium, a giant browsing rhinoceros from the Oligocene;
(By Kevin Yan)

Previously, I explained my great dislike for statements claiming that the 5 extant species of rhinoceros are prehistoric survivors. The rhinos we see today represent a single surviving lineage, a mere twig in the rhino family tree. This post will look at some of these actual prehistoric rhinos, and we'll see that over the last 50 million years, rhinos took on many different shapes and sizes.

Rhinos are not prehistoric survivors: World Rhino Day Part 1

Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis);
(Photo by International Rhino Foundation)

This coming Saturday, 22nd September, will be World Rhino Day. It is a day to highlight the ongoing poaching crisis that continues to threaten the survival of all 5 species of rhino, and to push for greater action to put an end to the needless killing over fallacious claims of rhino horn possessing medicinal properties.

While it seems that rhinos were not historically present in Singapore (except as captive specimens), I am particularly fond of rhinos, and have decided to do a series of post in the days leading up to World Rhino Day.