Fossils of rhino taller than a giraffe found in China

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The newfound creature, unveiled today in the scientific journal Communications Biology, is an extinct cousin of today’s rhinoceros called Paraceratherium linxiaense. The colossal animal would have weighed up to 24 tons, four times heavier than today’s African elephants, and its skull alone was more than a yard long.

It’s the latest known species in a group of giant, hornless rhinos that lived across Central Asia from roughly 50 million years ago until 23 million years ago. P. linxiaense and its kin are all famous for their huge sizes. The average adult is thought to have stood more than 16 feet tall at the shoulder, with a nearly seven-foot-long neck topped by a massive skull. Today’s giraffes are between 14 and 19 feet tall, head and all.

The giant rhinos “would have been able to eat flowers at the third or fourth floor of a building,” says National Geographic Explorer Pierre-Olivier Antoine, a rhino paleontologist at France’s University of Montpellier who reviewed the new study.

  

P. linxiaense was among the last of these giants, called paraceratheres, living about 26.5 million years ago. Thanks to their age and location, the new fossils, including a complete skull, a mandible, and three vertebrae, are helping fill out the paracerathere family tree, shedding new light on where these towering rhinos evolved and how they spread across the present-day continent of Asia.

Antoine, the French paleontologist, says the new study helps reveal geographic patterns that governed the giant rhinos’ movements across ancient Earth. A catalog of giant rhino fossils in the new research suggests that the animals never crossed from Asia into Europe through the Ural Mountains, for example, indicating the mountain range may have acted as a barrier.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/fossils-of-rhino-taller-than-a-giraffe-found-in-china, https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02170-6

[weed 78,870]

that's crazyyyy omg soo massive. So exciting, I wish I could travel back and see Earth pre any humans, literally a planet of paradise

imagine giant humans were real, that would be wild

[huttont 6,001]

I just read this article right before I logged onto GGD! I would love to see what the wildlife was like back then. Like how all the animals interacted within the ecosystem. 

[Kadikaado 4,302]

I think I am the only one that thinks that this is way more exciting than dinossaurs. lol

[Jill 31,812]

I don't get it. Any building nowadays is taller than a giraffe, but nobody bats an eye. Then a random rhino comes outta nowhere and everybody is suddenly surprised? Sorry but this smells fishy.

[chromatic puzea 10,653]

13 minutes ago, Jill said:

Sorry but this smells fishy.

have you tried closing your legs?