Abstract
As one of the largest land mammals, the origin and evolution of the giant rhino Paraceratherium bugtiense in Pakistan have been unclear. We report a new species Paraceratherium linxiaense sp. nov. from northwestern China with an age of 26.5 Ma. Morphology and phylogeny reveal that P. linxiaense is the highly derived species of the genus Paraceratherium, and its clade with P. lepidum has a tight relationship to P. bugtiense. Based on the paleogeographical literature, P. bugtiense represents a range expansion of Paraceratherium from Central Asia via the Tibetan region. By the late Oligocene, P. lepidum and P. linxiaense were found in the north side of the Tibetan Plateau. The Tibetan region likely hosted some areas with low elevation, possibly under 2000 m during Oligocene, and the lineage of giant rhinos could have dispersed freely along the eastern coast of the Tethys Ocean and perhaps through some lowlands of this region.
Highlights
As one of the largest land mammals, the origin and evolution of the giant rhino Paraceratherium bugtiense in Pakistan have been unclear
These works suggest that Juxia diverged from the Forstercooperia-Pappacera clade at about 40 million years ago (Ma) in the middle Eocene, and its stock evolved into Urtinotherium in the late Eocene and the derived genus Paraceratherium in the Oligocene
Eocene to early Oligocene Aralotherium and the late Oligocene Dzungariotherium and Turpanotherium, and among the species within the genus Paraceratherium has not been revealed through cladistics analysis
Summary
As one of the largest land mammals, the origin and evolution of the giant rhino Paraceratherium bugtiense in Pakistan have been unclear. The Jiaozigou fauna of the Linxia Basin includes the giant rhinos Turpanotherium and Dzungariotherium, the rodent Tsaganomys, the creodont Megalopterodon, the chalicothere Schizotherium, the hyracodont Ardynia, the rhinocerotid Aprotodon, and the entelodont Paraentelodon (Supplementary Table 1), making it similar to the Nanpoping fauna of the Lanzhou Basin and other Tabenbulukian faunas from Inner Mongolia and Ningxia. This suggests the widespread occurrence of open woodland during the late Oligocene in northwestern China, with a mix of woodland and grassland[7]
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