 Reference Base  The Zoological Society (The death of two rhinoceroses; me... |
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Pocock, R.I., 1912. The Zoological Society (The death of two rhinoceroses; measurements of Indian rhinoceroses; some characters of rhinoceroses; the King's collection of Indian animals). Field 119 (3082), 20 January 1912: 143, figs. 1-5
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World |
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Taxonomy |
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All Rhino Species |
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It is generally agreed that there are five, and only five, existing species of rhinoceroses, two, the so-called black rhinoceros (R. bicornis) and the white rhinoceros (R. simus) being confined to tropical and south Africa, and three, the so-called Indian rhinoceros (R. unicornis), Javan rhinoceros (R. sondaicus) and Sumatran rhinoceros (R. sumatrensis) being restricted to India and Further India. The trivial names of these species are most inappropriate. The 'black' and the 'white' species are not distinguishable by colour; the 'Javan' species occurs in India and Malacca as well as Java; while the 'Sumatran' species ranges from Assam southward to Sumatra and eastwards to Borneo. The scientific names are open to similar criticisms, the Javan being one-horned like the Indian (unicornis) and the Sumatran and white having two horns like the black form (bicornis).
But to consider the existing rhinoceros merely as 'species' conveys no idea of their true inter-relationship. They can be readily readily classified both by external, dental, skeletal, and anatomical characters into three well-marked, easily definable groups, one containing the two twohorned African species, a second the one two-horned Asiatic species (R. sumatrensis), and a third the two one-horned Asiatic species (R. unicornis and sondaicus). Nevertheless, most zoologists who give full generic value to the differences between the gorilla, chimpanzee, and orang-utan most illogically evade the same course with the rhinoceroses on the plea that there are so few species involved.
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