Ceratotherium mauritanicum

[Melanie]

Ceratotherium simum mauritanicum

Has anyone information about this subspecies?

www.angellis.net/Web/PDfiles/ungperis.pdf

[another specialist]

The white rhino (Ceratotherium simum)
The lineage of the white rhino Is much more recent than that
of the black. The genus
Ceratotherium appears during the Pliocene with C. praecox,
a species defined in 1972 by Hooijer and Patterson with material
from Kanopol and Ekora in East Africa. The same year
Hooijer described abundant material of the same species
from Langebaanweg In South Africa. I have studied the material
from Chemeron formation (Lake Baringo) and a good
deal of material from Hadar (Ethiopia) and from Laetolil (Tanzania).
The species is now known in 11 localities of East and
South Africa.
The recent species C. simum appears about 3 million years
ago. it is classically held that there are two fossil subspecies,
C.s. germanoafricanum from East Africa and C.s.
mauritanicum from North Africa. I have studied material of
germanoafricanum from Afar, East Turkana, Olduvai, Omo,
Rawi and sever minor locations, and mauritanicum material
from Ternifine (0.8 million years), Ain Hanech (1.5 mIllion
years) and other minor localities. The postcranial material
shows clear differences between the fossil and the recent
subspecies.
For the two recent forms, simum and cottoni, I have been
able to find only about 30 skulls and 12 postcranials, and
many were without specified origin. In fact, only 16 skulls
and 8 postcranial skeletons were certainly from cottoni, and
8 skulls with 2 postcranial skeletons from simum. Hence the
results are little more than an indication of differences. On
average, simum has a skull slightly larger than that of cottoni,
with a lower and broader skull roof, and a differently-shaped
occipital surface (confirming observations of Groves, 1975).
Comparison of fossil forms with the complete sample of recent
species shows that the skull of C. praecox Is shorter,
broader and lower, while the skull of C.s. germanoafricanum
seems like that of a gigantic white rhino with comparatively
narrower occipital surfaces, broader cheek teeth and correspondingly
narrower palate widths. A comparison of limb
elements again shows germanofricanum to be like a giant
white rhino, while mauritanicum has similar (or exaggerated)
proportions to C. praecox, being dissimilar to recent white
rhinos and germanoafricanum.
Since the two Pleistocene subspecies seem to be very different
to each other and from the recent ones,
germanoafricanum probably deserves full species rank and
may be the ancestor of the two recent forms; mauritanicum,
which has no descendants, seems closer to their common
ancestor, C. praecox, and probably also deserves species
rank. The two recent subspecies are clearly distinct from each
other and seem to be In the course of a speciation process.
More postcranial material, particularly from southern Africa,
Is required to help verify this.

www.iucn.org/THEMES/SSC/sgs/afesg/pachy/pdfs/pachy09.pdf

[another specialist]

Pliocene Rhinocerotidae (Mammalia) from Hadar and Dikika (Lower Awash, Ethiopia), and a revision of the origin of modern African rhinos
DENIS GERAADS,Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2005, 25(2):451-461

Fossil representatives of the two extant African rhinoceros lineages, Ceratotherium and Diceros, co-occur in the Pliocene deposits of the Hadar Formation, Ethiopia. Both arose, in turn, from Ceratotherium neumayri of the late Miocene. The first of these Pliocene species, Ceratotherium mauritanicum, can be distinguished from the living C. simum, to which it probably gave rise in the earliest Pleistocene, by its less plagiolophodont cheek teeth. The second, Diceros praecox, is closely related to D. bicornis, although many specimens, including the type, were previously referred to Ceratotherium. The teeth of D. praecox are little changed relative to those of its Miocene ancestor, but its skull displays the apomorphic rearrangements typical of D. bicornis, suggesting increased browsing specialization. The split between the two lineages probably indicates ecological divergence and character displacement between browsing versus grazing specializations.

www.vertpaleo.org/jvp/25-451-461.html

[Melanie]

It would be interesting to know when the last (Northern) White Rhinoceroces disappeared from Asia.

[peej2]

Is this rhinoceros from the prehistoric times? Or more recent??

[another specialist]

melanie said:

Ceratotherium simum mauritanicum

Has anyone information about this subspecies?

www.angellis.net/Web/PDfiles/ungperis.pdf

The source Melanie found is the only one that indicates it lived in Iran all others I've noted here indicate Africa as origin? So this is questionable a bit of a mystery.

Also it states Holocene not found any indication of this - all sources i've found make it much older so not a recent extinct.

So is this a typing error in the original source above or not?

Has anyone else found anymore info?

[surroundx]

"He transferred C. praecox to Diceros, and referred all the early stages of white rhinoceros to a species Ceratotherium mauritanicum, described from the Middle Pleistocene of North Africa (and surviving in North Africa until the Late Pleistocene, though replaced by C. simum in East Africa in the Early Pleistocene)."

"Ceratotherium mauritanicum, according to Geraads [44], differed from modern white rhinos by the weak postorbital constriction and wide nuchal crest, as well as the slender metapodials. He referred fossils from Kanapoi, Hadar, Dikika, Koobi Fora (below the KBS Tuff) and Rawi to it, but specimens throughout the Olduvai sequence were referred to C. simum (of which germanoafricanum was considered to be a synonym). Groves [1] had found that the type skull of C. mauritanicum and the skull from Koobi Fora were both wide postorbitally, and the Rawi skull fragment, like the Koobi Fora skull, had very broad occipital crests (that of the C. mauritanicum type skull is crushed in this region); skulls from Olduvai (both Bed II and Bed IV) resembled modern white rhinos in both these respects, but had extremely long toothrows, by which they differed from any modern white rhino."

Source:

Groves, Colin P., Fernando, P. and Robovský, J. (2010). The Sixth Rhino: A Taxonomic Re-Assessment of the Critically Endangered Northern White Rhinoceros. PLoS ONE 5(4): e9703.

[Melanie]

Guérin, C. & Faure, M. (2007). "XI. Étude paléontologique sur les mammifères du Pléistocène supérieure de l'oued El Akarit". In Roset, J.-P. & Harbi-Riahi, M. El Akarit - Un site archéologique du Paléolithique moyen dans la sud de la Tunisie

www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/129/1295689644.pdf

[Melanie]

Mar 29, 2006 20:27:46 GMT another specialist said:

Pliocene Rhinocerotidae (Mammalia) from Hadar and Dikika (Lower Awash, Ethiopia), and a revision of the origin of modern African rhinos
DENIS GERAADS,Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2005, 25(2):451-461

Full paper available here: halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00009680/document

[Sebbe]

New materials of the white rhinoceros Ceratotherium simum and auerochs Bos primigenius from a Late Pleistocene terrace of the Oued el Haï (NE Morocco) - two elements of the Maghrebi Palearctic fauna.

Most biogeographers considered the Maghreb to be part of the Palearctic biogeographic region, though it is relatively recently that the proportion of Palearctic species increased there. How and when exactly these biogeographic changes occurred is not well understood, but they are probably the result of the increasing aridification of the Sahara and decreasing global temperatures. Fossils of Bos primigenius and Ceratotherium simum from a new fossil locality in a terrace of the Oued el Haï (NE Morocco) contribute to our understanding of some of these biogeographic processes and their timing. They also suggest an age between ~57 and ~100 ka for the terrace. The same evolutionary change in Bos in Europe and the Maghreb suggests geneflow as the most parsimonious explanation, though parallel evolution is an alternative possibility. Oued el Haï has the oldest well-documented record of C. simum in the Maghreb. The dispersal of this species to North Africa, where it replaced C. mauritanicum, may have occurred during a ‘Green Sahara Period’ between 80–85 or 100–105 ka, when the Maghreb had acquired already a Palearctic character. The study of the biogeography and requirements of the large mammals of the Maghreb may provide information to calibrate the region’s climate modelling.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2021.1995381