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New materials of Pliorhinus ringstroemi from the Linxia Basin (Late Miocene, eastern Asia) and their taxonomical and evolutionary implications

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Abstract

A large collection of dicerorhine rhinoceros remains, here identified as Pliorhinus ringstroemi, were studied from the Late Miocene deposits of the Linxia Basin, eastern Asia. The new specimens include several complete skulls with for the first-time preserved premaxillae, providing new knowledge on the morphology and allowing a preliminary investigation of the intraspecific variation of the species. The morphological study supports Pliorhinus ringstroemi as a valid species and phylogenetic analyses place it as the sister group of P. megarhinus and P. miguelcrusafonti. Compared with P. megarhinus, the unique characters of P. ringstroemi include the better developed and oval I1, tusk-like i2, complex secondary folds on upper cheek teeth, convex base of the mandibular corpus, and slightly different skull shape as supported by the geometric morphometric study. Our findings confirm the gradual reduction of incisors, elongated nasal, retracted nasal notch, and, finally, a developed bony nasal septum previously reported for Dicerorhina. The early age and primitive traits suggest that Pliorhinus could have originated in Asia and migrated to Europe at the latest Miocene, taking the niche of closely related species Dihoplus pikermiensis in Europe.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available in the text and supplementary online information files.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Second Comprehensive Scientific Expedition on the Tibetan Plateau for supporting the financial and logistical support in the field work. We thank J. Chen, W. He, S. Chen, L. Zhang for help in accessing fossil collections of the IVPP and HMV. We thank S. Liu and Y. Chen for artworks.

Funding

The present study is supported in fossil repairation and field work by National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant number 2023YFF0804501), the Chinese Natural Science Foundation Program (grant number 42102001), Key Frontier Science Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant number QYZDY-SSW-DQC-22).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100044, China

    Shijie Li, Shiqi Wang & Tao Deng

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Shijie Li, Shiqi Wang & Tao Deng

  3. GloCEE - Global Change Ecology and Evolution Research Group, Departamento Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid, 28805, Spain

    Oscar Sanisidro

  4. Hezheng Paleozoological Museum, Hezheng, 731200, China

    Rong Yang

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  1. Shijie Li
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  2. Oscar Sanisidro
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  4. Rong Yang
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  5. Tao Deng
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Contributions

Shijie Li wrote the main manuscript text and prepared figures, Oscar Sanisidro and Tao Deng contributed significantly to analysis and manuscript preparation. Shiqi Wang and Rong Yang helped perform the analysis with constructive discussions. All authors contributed to the conception of the study and reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Tao Deng.

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Li, S., Sanisidro, O., Wang, S. et al. New materials of Pliorhinus ringstroemi from the Linxia Basin (Late Miocene, eastern Asia) and their taxonomical and evolutionary implications. J Mammal Evol 31, 6 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-023-09698-w

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