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![Elasmotherium sibiricum Fischer, 1809. 1) The skeleton of the Sibirian Elasmotherium restored in the exposition of the Stavropol regional museum, based on an almost complete skeleton found in 1964 near the village Gaevskaya (Stavropol region). Courtesy Stavropol Museum named after G.N. Prozritelev and G.K. Prave. 2) The cast of Fischer's type material, which he used for the description of the genus and species of Elasmothrium sibiricum [Fischer, 1808; 1809]; at present at the SGM exposition (PV-156). The length of the label is 6,5 cm](profile/Zoya-Bessudnova/publication/335231174/figure/fig2/AS:793372839124992@1566166233936/Elasmotherium-sibiricum-Fischer-1809-1-The-skeleton-of-the-Sibirian-Elasmotherium.png)
Elasmotherium sibiricum Fischer, 1809. 1) The skeleton of the Sibirian Elasmotherium restored in the exposition of the Stavropol regional museum, based on an almost complete skeleton found in 1964 near the village Gaevskaya (Stavropol region). Courtesy Stavropol Museum named after G.N. Prozritelev and G.K. Prave. 2) The cast of Fischer's type material, which he used for the description of the genus and species of Elasmothrium sibiricum [Fischer, 1808; 1809]; at present at the SGM exposition (PV-156). The length of the label is 6,5 cm
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This article summarizes the results of nearly 200 years of study of the fossil rhinoceros Elasmotherium, first described by Gotthelf Fischer in 1808. Problems of its geographical and chronological distribution are discussed, and morphological and ecological reconstructions of the species by various researchers are demonstrated and discussed. The ar...
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Context 1
... of them is still kept in the collection of the Zoological Museum of the Moscow University (No. 945 EEM-1006). Another one (fig 2: 2) was given to the Geological Cabinet (Museum) of the Moscow University in 1886 by order of the museum director, the famous zoologist and anthropologist Anatholy P. Bogdanov (1834 -1896) (Anonymous, 1887). Nowadays that replica is kept in the exhibition of the State Geological Museum (PV-156). ...
Context 2
... brought, inter alia, an almost complete elasmotherium skull (the so-called "Guriev skull" -fig 3: 1-5) in a good condition -only some parts of the left maxillary, frontal and zygomatic bones were destroyed (PV-167; now this specimen is in the exposition of the Hall of "Historical collections of the Vernadsky State Geological Museum of XVIIIearly XX centuries"). A remarkable feature of this specimen is a damage of the frontal swelling that occurred during the animal's life-time due to a sharp-pointed object, which made a perforating trapeziform wound several centimeters in size (fig 3: 2, 4). The wound is usually interpreted as a result of male fights during the mating period or, more often, as a result of human predation. ...
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Citations
... The genus Elasmotherium was named by Gotthelf Fischer in 1808 (Fischer, 1808) and the name of the species E. sibiricum was published a year later (Fischer, 1809). This giant rhinoceros species weighed around 3500 kg (Kosintsev et al., 2019) and may reach up to 4000-5000 kg (Paul, 1998;Zhegallo et al., 2005). It was over two meters high at the withers, about 4-5 m long, and its skull was the second largest among rhinoceroses (around 0.85-0.9 ...
... It was over two meters high at the withers, about 4-5 m long, and its skull was the second largest among rhinoceroses (around 0.85-0.9 m long) (Flerov, 1953;Schvyreva, 1995Schvyreva, , 2016Zhegallo et al., 2005). Besides their enormous size, the rhinoceroses of the genus Elasmotherium are known for their extraordinary anatomy, with the most famous anatomical feature being the dome-like protuberance on the frontal bones of the skull, which possibly played the role of a base for a giant horn (Flerov, 1953). ...
... The second view (Teryaev, 1930(Teryaev, , 1948 suggests that Elasmotherium had a hippo-like, semiaquatic lifestyle in riparian biotopes in which the source of food was proposed to be river and marsh plants, bottom plants, and rhizomes. An intermediate hypothesis was suggested by Noscova and Zhegallo (Noskova, 2001;Zhegallo et al., 2005), who believed that food for such a large animal could not be provided by low-productivity biotopes with xerophilous plants. The authors considered the habitat of Elasmotherium as a steppe landscape where riparian plant associations were the preferred feeding grounds. ...
The late Pleistocene site of Irgiz 1 (Saratov Region, Russia) has yielded an accumulation of giant rhinoceros (Elasmotherium sibiricum) within the deposits of an oxbow lake. Irgiz 1 is one of the few sites in the world with a significant amount of elasmothere individuals of different age groups. Tooth mesowear and microwear are used to characterize the dietary traits of the giant rhinoceros on two temporal scales, the annual average diet and the diet at the time of death, respectively. Tooth mesowear, analyzed on 20 specimens, suggests a highly abrasive diet similar to that of extant grazers (similar to the extant white rhinoceros). Tooth microwear analyzed on 16 specimens, conversely, indicates that E. sibiricum was a browser (feeding on leaves from shrubs and trees) at the time of death. The strong discrepancy between the results from the two dietary proxies and the very low variability of the microwear signal suggest that these animals may have died in an event of short duration. The elasmotheres from the area around Irgiz 1 were grazers, but a catastrophic event, perhaps related to the sudden accumulation of snow and ice coating (‘dzud’), limited the availability of grass and forced them to shift toward shrub /tree foliage that was still accessible. The combination of the two proxies, mesowear and microwear, allows the reconstruction of the dietary traits of E. sibiricum, but also to propose a hypothesis for death. This first study of tooth meso- and microwear on elasmotheres provided unique data which allows us to broaden our knowledge about the diet of these animals. The findings indicate that the Irgiz 1 population of elasmotheres died in a single catastrophic event and that the fossil assemblage is not time-averaged.
... The diets of these large herbivores ranged from grassdominated (Hipparion, Hemibos, Hexaprotodon and Sivatherium) to mixed-feeding (Merycopotamus) and browsing (Stegodon), based on stable carbon isotope and microwear analyses (Patnaik 2015). Central Asia was dominated by open steppe environments, and the peculiar hypselodont elasmotheriine rhinos of the genus Elasmotherium originated there, probably adapting to very abrasive "hypergrazing" grass-based diets ( Zhegallo et al. 2005). The Tibetan plateau served as a place of origin for many genera of cold-adapted ungulates with adaptations to grazing in cold steppe environments, such as the early woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta thibetana) ( Deng et al. 2011). ...
Large herbivorous mammals have a long history of adaptation to changing environmental circumstances. Many groups of mammalian herbivores started as omnivores and opportunistic browsers of fruits and other plant parts, later adapting to increasingly specialised leaf browsing, and finally to grazing as open grass-dominated environments spread following climatic cooling and drying during the Neogene. Changes in global climate led to vegetational changes in terrestrial ecosystems, which resulted in changes in the proportions of browsing and grazing species in the ungulate guilds. There is currently a range of proxy methods to assess diets and feeding ecology of large extinct herbivorous mammals, including dental microwear and mesowear analyses and stable isotope analyses. Together these methods have enabled an increasingly diverse and fine-scale understanding of the dietary variation of herbivorous mammals throughout the Cenozoic, providing a more detailed picture than traditional comparative ecomorphology approaches alone. This chapter will provide an up-to-date assessment of the analytical methods of determining the diet of extinct large herbivorous mammal taxa, and provide insights into changes in the assemblages of browsing and grazing mammals and how these relate to changes to climate and the evolution of different plant forms.
... There is currently no record of the species' remains from any archaeological site, and the very few suggested depictions of Elasmotherium in Palaeolithic art (ref. 50 ...
Understanding extinction events requires an unbiased record of the chronology and ecology of victims and survivors. The rhinoceros Elasmotherium sibiricum, known as the ‘Siberian unicorn’, was believed to have gone extinct around 200,000 years ago—well before the late Quaternary megafaunal extinction event. However, no absolute dating, genetic analysis or quantitative ecological assessment of this species has been undertaken. Here, we show, by accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating of 23 individuals, including cross-validation by compound-specific analysis, that E. sibiricum survived in Eastern Europe and Central Asia until at least 39,000 years ago, corroborating a wave of megafaunal turnover before the Last Glacial Maximum in Eurasia, in addition to the better-known late-glacial event. Stable isotope data indicate a dry steppe niche for E. sibiricum and, together with morphology, a highly specialized diet that probably contributed to its extinction. We further demonstrate, with DNA sequencing data, a very deep phylogenetic split between the subfamilies Elasmotheriinae and Rhinocerotinae that includes all the living rhinoceroses, settling a debate based on fossil evidence and confirming that the two lineages had diverged by the Eocene. As the last surviving member of the Elasmotheriinae, the demise of the ‘Siberian unicorn’ marked the extinction of this subfamily. © 2018, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
This study investigates the potential of using contemporary African Grasslands as an ecological analog to understand the Pleistocene Eurasian Mammoth Steppe, a complex ecosystem known primarily through estimations, proxies, and extrapolation of the limited direct evidence. By examining the themes of climate, flora, and fauna, the research aims to assess the validity of African Grasslands in offering insights into the dynamics of the Mammoth Steppe, particularly in the context of megafaunal interactions. Despite the inherent challenges of employing proxies, this analysis highlights significant, albeit inconsistent, parallels between the two ecosystems, such as bioproductivity and mammalian biodiversity. Results indicate that while the African Grasslands cannot serve as a comprehensive proxy for the Mammoth Steppe, they present a valuable opportunity for generating hypotheses and stimulating further research on megafaunal impacts during the Pleistocene. The findings underscore the necessity for cautious application of proxy methods in paleoecological studies, emphasizing the importance of establishing independent comparisons to enhance the scientific understanding of extinct ecosystems. This work lays the groundwork for future investigations into the relationships between existing and extinct ecological systems.
The family Rhinocerotidae is a key component of the Cenozoic European fauna. It reached its peak diversity during Miocene and began to decline in the Pliocene; the last representatives became extinct in Europe during the Quaternary. The present state-of-the-art review takes stock of the knowledge accumulated on Central and
Eastern European Pleistocene rhinos to date. Eight species were present in Central and Eastern Europe in the Quaternary; five belonged to the genus Stephanorhinus (S. etruscus, S. jeanvireti, S. hundsheimensis, S. hemitoechus, and S. kirchbergensis), one was the woolly rhino Coelodonta antiquitatis, and two species were members of the genus Elasmotherium (E. peii and E. caucasicum). This review also offered the opportunity to critically reconsider some aspects of the systematics and stratigraphic location of the finds. Coelodonta antiquitatis is shown to have still been present as late as the Interplenivistulian and the Last Glacial Maximum; radiocarbon dating of its latest remains provided the timing of the final disappearance of the woolly rhino from the studied region. The Late Pleistocene distribution of Coelodonta antiquitatis in Central and Eastern Europe was found to largely overlap that of the woolly mammoth.
In terrestrial vertebrates, the shape of the limb bones is influenced, among other factors, by functional constraints, notably the need to resist loading stresses due to gravity. This led, in quadrupeds weighting hundreds of kilograms, to morphological modifications of the limb bones to avoid crushing. Such architectural modifications related to a heavy weight have been historically qualified as “graviportal”. Rhinocerotoidea are of particular interest to study the morphological changes of the limb bones related to body mass, as they are represented by five extant species and dozens of fossil genera, some being among the heaviest land mammals that ever existed. Several independent occurrences of an increase of body mass are observed in this superfamily, making it relevant to study the variation of shape in relation to weight. This work explores the shape variation of the limb long bones relatively to body mass and body proportions among Rhinocerotoidea along their evolutionary history, in order to better understand how the skeleton modifies to meet the functional requirements of a coordinated locomotion and the support of a heavy weight. To do so, I used a 3D geometric morphometrics approach to qualify and quantify the shape of the six bones composing the stylopodium and zeugopodium of a sample of modern and fossil specimens. The exploration of the long bone shape variation and covariation in relation to body mass and to the evolutionary legacy in modern rhinos has been completed by the study of numerous fossil representatives to cover a large range of weight and body proportions, taking into account the evolutionary history of the group. My work highlights an increase of bone robustness common to all heavy rhinos. The development of the insertions for powerful extensor muscles and the likely presence of passive-stay apparatuses at shoulder and knee joints in heavy rhino taxa allow to better resist flexion caused by loading forces. My results show that forelimb bones are more influenced by body mass variation than hind limb ones in Rhinocerotoidea, likely due to the different proportion of body mass that they support and to their distinct respective roles of brake and propulsion. The shape of the stylopodium bones is simultaneously related to evolutionary legacy and body mass, while that of the zeugopodium is mostly associated with the degree of brachypody (i.e., relative limb length). The fibula is the only bone showing puzzling patterns of shape variation dominated by intraspecific variations, which questions its functional role in weight bearing. The shape variation in Rhinocerotoidea carries a dual signal with uniform aspects shared by all heavy species coupled with specific features in the different taxa, corresponding to the multiplicity of limb constructions observed in the superfamily. In addition to modifications related to heavy weight, most Rhinocerotoidea retain features of running quadrupeds while displaying different ways to sustain a high mass, questioning the classical definition of graviportality mainly based on elephants. This highlights the necessity to redefine graviportality by highlighting what are the repeated features potentially linked to it in each group with independent occurrences of heavy weight.
Prehistoric and recent extinctions of large-bodied terrestrial herbivores had significant and lasting impacts on Earth’s ecosystems due to the loss of their distinct trait combinations. The world’s surviving large-bodied avian and mammalian herbivores remain among the most threatened taxa. As such, a greater understanding of the ecological impacts of large herbivore losses is increasingly important. However, comprehensive and ecologically-relevant trait datasets for extinct and extant herbivores are lacking. Here, we present HerbiTraits , a comprehensive functional trait dataset for all late Quaternary terrestrial avian and mammalian herbivores ≥10 kg (545 species). HerbiTraits includes key traits that influence how herbivores interact with ecosystems, namely body mass, diet, fermentation type, habitat use, and limb morphology. Trait data were compiled from 557 sources and comprise the best available knowledge on late Quaternary large-bodied herbivores. HerbiTraits provides a tool for the analysis of herbivore functional diversity both past and present and its effects on Earth’s ecosystems.
Many tetrapod lineages show extreme increases in body mass in their evolutionary history, associated with important osteological changes. The ankle joint, essential for foot movement, is assumed to be particularly affected in this regard. We investigated the morphological adaptations of the astragalus and the calcaneus in Rhinocerotidae, and analysed them in light of a comparative analysis with other Perissodactyla. We performed 3D geometric morphometrics and correlated shape with centroid size of the bone and body mass of the species. Our results show that mass has an influence on bone shape in Rhinocerotidae and in Perissodactyla, but this is not as strong as expected. In heavy animals the astragalus has a flatter trochlea, orientated more proximally, associated with a more upright posture of the limb. The calcaneus is more robust, possibly to sustain the greater tension force exerted by the muscles during plantarflexion. Both bones show wider articular facets, providing greater cohesion and better dissipation of the loading forces. The body plan of the animals also has an influence. Short-legged Teleoceratina have a flatter astragalus than the other rhinocerotids. Paraceratherium has a thinner calcaneus than expected. This study clarifies adaptations to high body weight among Rhinocerotidae and calls for similar investigations in other groups with massive forms.
