 Reference Base  The wild animals of the Indian Empire and the problem of ... |
|
Prater, S.H., 1934. The wild animals of the Indian Empire and the problem of their preservation, part II. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 37 (1) Supplement: 57-96, pls. 15-36
|
|
|
|
| |
| Location: |
World |
| Subject: |
Taxonomy - Evolution |
| Species: |
All Rhino Species |
 |
|
The various species of rhinooceroses, all now confined to the Old World, differ remarkably from one another in structure. As a result of migrations during past epochs into different habitats and climates, into new feeding grounds to which they became adapted, the various species appear to have become distinct at a very early period of their history.
A comparison of the remains of numerous extinct forms with those now living indicates 7 distinct lines of descent and evolution from which lesser branches were given off. Though these animals are externally similar they are thus really very far apart both in history and anatomy: even the two living African probably separated from each other and became distinct species a million ears ago.
Three species of Rhinoceros are found within our limits. The Great One-horned Rliinoceros (Rhinoceros indicus) and its relative, the Smaller One-horned or Javan Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus) have an obscure genealogical history. No representatives of these true and typical Rhinoceroses have been discovered anywhere but in South-Eastern Asia. Their remains are not found in the more ancient Sivalik beds. But they appear with relative suddenness in the uppermost and more recent beds in the form of two species known as the Sivalik Rhinoceros (R. sivalensis) and R. palaeindicus, the ancient Rliinoceros of India.
The Asiatic two-horned Rhinoceros (R. sumatrensis) was on the other hand widely distributed in the past. It was quite abundant in the Sivalik Hills in Pliocene times. It was a geological period when these animals, favoured by a genial climate, inhabited a broad forest belt which stretched from the east coast of England southwards and eastward across Southern France and North Italy to India.
|
|
|
File available
details
Original text on this topic: