Deng Tao, a researcher at the Institute of Paleovertebrates of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was interviewed at the Beijing office to introduce the latest achievements in the research of horned rhinoceros fossils. Photo by Sun Zifa, a reporter from China News Service
BEIJING, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Tens of millions of years ago, did rhinos migrate on earth via the southern edge of the Then Qinghai-Tibet Plateau? A new study of prehistoric rhino fossils by Chinese scientists has revealed that during the Oligocene-Miocene transition about 20 million years ago, horned rhinoceros migrated along the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau.
Deng Tao's team at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Paleovertebrates, Chinese Academy of Sciences) proposed a new hypothesis about its evolutionary migration history by conducting in-depth research on the skeleton fossils of the early Miocene stratigraphic short-legged rhinoceros from the Shanwang Basin of Shandong Province, which is more likely to pass through the central Asian Kazakhstan region, that is, from the northern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau rather than the previously widely believed southern edge.
Schematic map of the migration of the horned rhinoceros along the northern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau about 20 million years ago. Photo courtesy of Institute of Paleovertebrate Vertebrate, Chinese Academy of Sciences
This paper on the evolution of ancient rhinos has recently been published online in Asia Earth Science, which provides new clues for studying the evolutionary migration history of mammals during the transition from oligocene to Miocene, which also shows that the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has had a significant impact on the evolution and development of zoogeographic fauna.
Deng Tao, a researcher in Beijing on the 23rd, said in an interview with the China News Agency that the stratigraphic era of fossils produced in Shandong's Shanwang Basin is the early Miocene period, and the fossils are complete and exquisite, not only the leaf fossils of plants, but also the skeleton fossils of vertebrates such as fish, frogs, crocodiles and mammals. Among them, rhinoceros research was first named by Mr. Yang Zhongjian, a pioneer and founder of Chinese paleovertebrate zoology, in 1937 according to some skeleton materials. In 1965, researcher Wang Xiangyue of the Institute of Paleovertebrates of the Chinese Academy of Sciences noticed that there may be another type of rhinoceros in the Shanwang Basin, but limited to less material, and temporarily put it into the genus Near hornless rhinoceros, named "Shanwang Near Hornless Rhinoceros".
Deng Tao's team found new rhinoceros skeleton fossils and related studies in the Shanwang Basin. Photo courtesy of Institute of Paleovertebrate Vertebrate, Chinese Academy of Sciences
In this latest study, the research team found new rhino skeleton fossils in the Shanwang Basin to explain the morphological characteristics of the Shanwang species, especially its large upper and lower incisors, the horned seat at the end of the nose, and the thick bones of the front and back feet. Based on this, the research team revised the species into the genus Diplodocus of the genus Dipterocarpus of the genus Short-legged Rhinoceros.
Deng Tao pointed out that the earliest fossil record of the horned rhinoceros is produced in the Late Oligocene strata in France, and Europe is also the most fossil-rich region of the genus, while Asia has only been found in the Early Miocene strata of Kazakhstan in Central Asia. The study of skeleton fossils found in the Shanwang Basin of Shandong, China, extended the distribution range of the genus Rhinoceros to East Asia, and also revealed its distinctive evolutionary migration history during the Late Oligocene to the Early Miocene.
Comparing the geohistory distribution of contemporaneous rhinoceros, it is found that most of the genera common to Asia and Europe are found in South and Southeast Asia, that is, they migrate through the southern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. However, "the absence of the parallel horned rhinoceros in the South and Southeast Asian strata suggests that its migration route from Europe to East Asia is more likely to pass through the Kazakhstan region of Central Asia, that is, through the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, indicating that the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau has had a significant impact on the evolutionary development of the zoogeographic fauna."
Deng Tao said that the research team will further carry out in-depth research on mammals such as rhinoceros in the key transitional period of oligocene/Miocene, and clarify more details of the impact of climate and environmental changes on the ecological environment. (End)
Source: China News Network