Menoceras

For the plant genus, see Velleia.
Menoceras
Temporal range: early Miocene[1]
Mounted skeleton
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Rhinocerotidae
Genus: †Menoceras
(Troxell, 1921)
Type species
†Diceratherium arikarense
Species[2]
  • †M. arikarense
  • †M. barbouri
Synonyms
  • †Moschoedestes Stevens, 1969[3]

Menoceras ("Crescent Horns") is a genus of extinct, small rhinoceros endemic to most of southern North America and ranged as far south as Panama during the early Miocene epoch. It lived from around 30.7—19.7 Ma, existing for approximately 11 million years.

Contents

Behaviour

Menoceras roamed a grassland and plains environment of the North America (Prothero, 2005). Because of the massive accumulations of fossil bones of this animal, particularly at Agate Springs Nebraska, Menoceras may have lived in large herds. However, other sites i.e. Martin-Anthony site Martin County, Florida, and Cady Mountains Horse Quarry, San Bernardino County, California.[4]

Male Menoceras sported two horns side by side at the tip of the nose, whereas the females were hornless. All other rhino genera, save the related genus Diceratherium, have their horns arranged one behind the other. Menoceros grew to a length of 5 feet (1.5 meters) long, around the size of a large pig.

Taxonomy

Menoceras was named by Troxell and assigned to Rhinocerotidae by Troxell in 1921. It was synonymized subjectively with Diceratherium by Matthew in 1931 and Wood in 1964. Again assigned to Rhinocerotidae by Prothero, Guerrin, Manning in 1989.[5] Tanner (1969), Wilson and Schiebout (1981), Prothero and Manning (1987), Carroll (1988) and Prothero et al. (1989); and to Menoceratinae by Prothero (1998).[6]

Fossil distribution

Fossil distribution is as far north as New Jersey, south to Florida (3 collections) and Texas (6 collections), as far west as Nebraska (7 collections) and California (2 collections).

The Panamanian find was determined to be 19.7 Ma (AEO). It was found in the Gaillard Cut in Panama in "a 45 m thick section (narrow stratigraphic interval)"[7] It was reposited in the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C. Other sites:

Morphology

Three specimens were examined for estimated body mass by M. Mendoza, C. M. Janis, and P. Palmqvist. [8] These specimens were estimated to weigh:

One specimen was examined by Mikael Fortelius, University of Helsinki and J. Kappelman[9] and estimated a body mass of:

Notes

  1. ^ Prothero, 2005, p. 189.
  2. ^ Prothero, 2005, pp. 59.
  3. ^ Prothero, 2005, pp. 65-67.
  4. ^ PaleoDB collection 19233, authorized by Dr. John Alroy, May 15, 2002.
  5. ^ D. R. Prothero, C. Guerin, and E. Manning. 1989. The history of the Rhinocerotoidea. In D. R. Prothero and R. M. Schoch (eds.), The Evolution of Perissodactyls 321-340.
  6. ^ D. R. Prothero. 1998. Rhinocerotidae. In C. M. Janis, K. M. Scott, and L. L. Jacobs (eds.), Evolution of Tertiary mammals of North America 595-605.
  7. ^ Cucaracha Formation, Gaillard Cut, Panama. J. Alroy. 2002. Synonymies and reidentifications of North American fossil mammals.
  8. ^ M. Mendoza, C. M. Janis, and P. Palmqvist. 2006. Estimating the body mass of extinct ungulates: a study on the use of multiple regression. Journal of Zoology 270(1):90-101.
  9. ^ Mikael Fortelius and J. Kappelman. The largest land mammal ever imagined. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 108(1):85-101

References