A list of the weirdest rhinos that have ever appeared, with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them topping the list

Today, this ancient species of rhino is facing the risk of extinction.

But in history, their numbers have once flourished, and there have been many species with different shapes and forms, some of which have strange appearances.

"The prototype of the horned beast, the Elasmotherium"

If you have seen the movie "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", you will definitely be impressed by the horned beast that looks like a rhinoceros and can spray venom from the huge horns on its head.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

In the history of evolution in nature, there really was an animal that looked extremely similar to the horned beast, called the Elasmotherium.

The Elasmotherium lived on the Eurasian steppes during the Pleistocene about 2.6 million to 30,000 years ago. It is a species of the genus Elasmotherium in the family Rhinoceros, superfamily Rhinoceros, order Perissodactyla. There are five populations in total, including the Siberian Elasmotherium, the Caucasian Elasmotherium, and the Chinese Elasmotherium.

The average height is between 2.5 and 3 meters, the body length is close to 5 meters, and the weight ranges from 5 to 7 tons. It is comparable in size to the African elephant. In the entire rhinoceros family, its size is second only to the largest terrestrial mammal that has ever appeared, the Giant Dzungar Rhinoceros.

Image from Wikipedia

In addition to its huge size, the most obvious external feature of the Elasmotherium is the huge horn located on its forehead and between its eyes, which is 2 meters long. Its length is the longest in the entire rhinoceros family. Its internal structure is the same as that of modern rhinoceros horns, made of a material similar to human hair or nails.

In addition to its length, the horn of the Elasmotherium is also extremely thick. The thickest horn base (the root of the horn) almost covers the entire forehead and is very strong.

Thanks to its powerful body and long and strong horns, although the real Elasmotherium does not have the ability to spray venom, it can still keep all kinds of carnivores away when it grows up.

In addition, the Elasmotherium is the only one-horned rhino discovered so far with a horn growing on its forehead. The horns of existing one-horned rhinos all grow on the front of their noses.

Another important feature of the Elasmotherium is its teeth. Fossil data show that the teeth of the Elasmotherium were long columnar square plates (which is why it got its name), and looked very similar to horse teeth.

Therefore, like horses, they mainly feed on grass on the ground, which makes them very suitable for living on the vast Eurasian steppes during the Pleistocene.

In the late Pleistocene, with the end of the Ice Age, the powerful Elasmotherium was finally unable to withstand the changes in the environment and eventually disappeared forever.

Woolly rhinoceros in sweater

If you ask about the environment or region where rhinos live, many people will probably think of the vast African grasslands, or the jungles of India and Southeast Asia. These places have one thing in common: "hot".

But in the Pleistocene period hundreds to more than ten thousand years ago, there was a type of rhinoceros that once made its home in the icy and snowy Siberia. People gave them a vivid name based on their thick and long hair - woolly rhinoceros.

Image from Wikipedia

In the classification within the rhinoceros family, the woolly rhino belongs to the Coelodontia of the Dicerinae subfamily, and is a close relative of the existing Sumatran rhino.

An adult woolly rhino is 2 meters tall, 4 meters long and weighs about 4 tons. It has a longer nose horn and a shorter frontal horn. In addition to wearing a thick sweater, the woolly rhino's teeth are also very distinctive. There is not a single incisor in its huge mouth, so it has another name in the academic community, "cavity-toothed rhino" (meaning a rhino with hollow teeth).

When eating, the woolly rhino would first hold the grass or leaves in its large mouth, then move it deep into its mouth and chew it with its wrinkled cheek teeth.

The earliest woolly rhinoceros appeared in northern Asia about 2 million years ago. At that time, the woolly rhinoceros had not yet grown into a majestic body and did not have much hair on its body, so it mainly lived in places that were not too cold. The more famous species include the Nihewan woolly rhinoceros in Hebei, my country.

In the following hundreds of thousands of years, woolly rhinos began to migrate northward into Europe. By the Middle and Late Pleistocene periods, they had occupied all of Europe except Italy, southern Greece, and the Scandinavian Peninsula. One group even conquered the icy Siberia and evolved into an Ice Age behemoth as cold-resistant as the woolly mammoth, and survived until the end of the Pleistocene.

Amphibious rhinoceros that resembles a hippopotamus

If we compare the most obvious difference between today's rhinoceros and hippopotamus, it is undoubtedly that the former has long horns on its head, while the latter has no horns on its head, but has fangs that are longer than those of carnivores.

However, in the history of the rhinoceros family, there was once a type of "non-mainstream" species. They had flat heads but fangs similar to those of hippos in their mouths. The representative of this type of non-mainstream species was the "amphibious rhinoceros" family.

Image from Wikipedia

The Amphibian Rhinoceros is a completely extinct early rhinoceros that lived in Asia, Europe and North America from the Middle Eocene to the Early Oligocene. Most members of this family are over 3 meters long, and the largest giant amphibian rhinoceros is 4 meters and 4 tons. They have no horns on their heads, short and thick limbs, well-developed molars and canines, and long and sharp fangs that can be used to defend themselves against predators or compete with their companions for mates and territory.

In addition to its body shape and teeth, the living habits of amphibious rhinos are very similar to those of modern hippos. They like to make their home in the river near the shore, and when they are hungry, they will come to the shore to eat fresh and tender plant branches and leaves. This habit of sometimes being in the water and sometimes running to the shore is indeed worthy of the name of "amphibious".

Among all the amphibious rhinos, the Cardinal rhinoceros and the Mongolian rhinoceros are relatively special groups. The former has a nose that protrudes forward like a modern tapir, while the latter's head occupies 1/4 of the length of the torso, which is significantly larger in proportion to the body than other amphibious rhinos.

With their sharp fangs and sturdy bodies, amphibious rhinos lived a very comfortable life during the warm climate of the Eocene and early Oligocene. However, by the end of the Oligocene, their highly specialized bodies could not adapt to environmental changes, and they eventually hurriedly withdrew from the stage of natural evolution history.

The giant among land mammals

Although the above-mentioned types of rhinos are not exactly the same in appearance, they all generally have short and thick necks and legs and huge bodies. Their outlines can be more or less related to modern rhinos. However, the giant rhinoceros to be introduced below looks completely different from modern rhinoceros.

Image from Wikipedia

In fact, giant rhinoceros does not specifically refer to a certain type of rhinoceros, but refers to all animals under the giant rhinoceros family of the superfamily Rhinoceros in the order Perissodactyla. These animals generally have no horns on their heads, long necks and long legs, which forms a sharp contrast with people's impression of rhinoceros in terms of image.

Giant rhinoceros mainly lived in Asia and Eastern Europe during the Oligocene period, about 340,000 to 230,000 years ago. Most of them were at least 4 meters tall, 7-8 meters long, and weighed more than 10 tons. The largest of them, the Junggar giant rhinoceros, had a shoulder height of more than 5 meters, a body length of more than 9 meters, and a weight of between 15 and 20 tons. It is the largest terrestrial mammal discovered so far in the history of the Earth.

The excellent altitude allows the giant rhinoceros to eat leaves that other herbivores cannot reach. Even if the food in one place is finished, their long and powerful legs are enough to ensure that they can migrate long distances and find the next forest with sufficient food. Their huge bodies allow them to ignore the existence of any carnivores. It is no exaggeration to call them giants.

However, as the saying goes, everything that goes up must come down. Not long after the giant rhinoceros successfully evolved into an excellent species like the Junggar giant rhinoceros, God played a cruel joke on them. With the drying of the global climate at the end of the Oligocene, large tracts of forests were replaced by grasslands. The low-crowned teeth that the giant rhinoceros grew to eat leaves were unable to chew the rough grass, and it was eventually eliminated before the arrival of the Miocene.

Prehistoric pony "Running Rhino"

Although the giant rhinoceros is obviously different from other rhinos in body shape, its method of dealing with predators is similar to that of other rhinos, relying on its huge body to intimidate the opponent.

However, another type of rhinoceros, the running rhinoceros, which is similar in size to the giant rhinoceros, does not have this ability because they are smaller than humans.

The running rhinoceros is an animal of the family Rhinoceros in the superfamily Rhinoceros. It first appeared in North America in the Eocene. They are 1 meter long and no more than 80 centimeters tall. They have no horns on their heads and look like a small horse. They usually live in small groups deep in the dense forest, feeding mainly on branches and leaves of plants. Occasionally they come to open woodlands. Due to their small size, they can only run away when facing predators.

Image from Wikipedia

As an early member of the rhino family, the running rhino has obvious differences in body shape from later rhinos and the number of toes is also different. They have 4 toes on their front feet and 3 on their hind feet (modern rhinos have 3 toes on both front and back feet).

Fossil records show that although the running rhinoceros was small, it had eye sockets that were relatively large compared to its head. Paleontologists speculate that they should have had relatively good eyesight so that they could detect hidden predators at any time.

In the Oligocene, running rhinos began to flourish, and their sphere of influence expanded from North America to Eurasia. Among them, the more famous species is the Proto-hoofed rhinoceros that lives in Yunnan, my country. Their body size is about the same as a dog.

Most rhinos have low-crowned teeth that are suitable for eating leaves, but the Nebraska rhinoceros, which lives in North America, is an exception. Its higher-crowned teeth allow it to feed on coarse grass on the ground. It is precisely because of these teeth that the Nebraska rhinoceros has become the longest-lived member of the running rhino family.

However, the Nebraska running rhino eventually did not escape the fate of extinction. In the early Miocene, drastic climate changes and competition from animals such as three-toed horses eventually drove the running rhino family off the train of natural evolution.

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Author: Zhao Liang

Tadpole Musical Notation original article, please indicate the source when reprinting

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