Fossils found in north-west China’s Gansu province indicate a new species of giant rhino that lived more than 26 million years ago. The fossils, including a skull and two vertebrae, shed light on how the ancient rhinos, some of the largest land mammals ever, evolved and moved across what is now Asia. The dispersal of giant rhino fossils – others have been found in Pakistan-indicate that Tibet, as a plateau, did not yet exist and was not yet a barrier to the exchange of largest land mammals. Giant rhinos like the newly discovered species named Paraceratherium linxiaense, were hornless, long necked herbivores, 16 feet tall, weighing 24 tonnes (equal to several elephants) and likely living in open woodland.
The team of scientists also found that the new species was closely related to giant rhinos that once lived in Pakistan, which suggested that it had travelled across Central Asia
If it had roamed freely between north-west China and the Indian-Pakistani subcontinent, it would suggest that the Tibetan Plateau would have likely had some low-lying areas at the time.
“Tropical conditions allowed the giant rhino to return northward to Central Asia, implying that the Tibetan region was still not uplifted as a high-elevation plateau,” said Prof Deng in a news release.
Picture Credit : Google
