Iranotherium

Iranotherium is an extinct genus of large elasmotheriine rhinocerotids, comparable in size to a modern white rhino. It is known from the Late Miocene (Tortonian) of Maragha, Iran and the middle part of the Liushu formation of northwestern China. It was a precursor to the related Sinotherium and may have been ultimately outcompeted by its descendant. This species is most well known for showing unique sexual dimorphism among rhinos.

Iranotherium

Ghedo · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
ElasmotheriinaPBDB
Diet
browserPBDB, for Rhinocerotidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Rhinocerotidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At most 6.3 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 11.63 Mya and 5.333 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 2 of 2 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.9–9.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.7–9.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.5–9.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.2–9.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.0–8.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.7–8.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.5–8.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.2–8.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.0–7.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.8–7.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.5–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–7.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.0–6.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.8–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–6.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.3–6.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.0–5.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.8–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12.1 Mya4.8 Mya

2 occurrences of Iranotherium on record, most of them in the Miocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

2 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Loh — 45.38°N, 101.51°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Iranotherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Iranotherium and its relatives

Miocene

Where Iranotherium and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

33 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Iranotherium, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 2 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Iranotherium

Credit
Ghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Iranotherium was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itElasmotheriina through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ringström 1924