''Dicerorhinus'' (Greek: "two" (dio), "horn" (keratos), "nose" (rhinos)) is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of the family Rhinocerotidae, consisting of a single extant

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

, the two-horned

Sumatran rhinoceros The Sumatran rhinoceros (''Dicerorhinus sumatrensis''), also known as the Sumatran rhino, hairy rhinoceros or Asian two-horned rhinoceros, is a rare member of the family Rhinocerotidae and one of five extant species of rhinoceros; it is the o ...

(''D. sumatrensis''), and several

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

species. The genus likely originated from the

Late Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million ye ...

of central

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

. Many species previously placed in this genus probably belong elsewhere''.''

Taxonomy

Species provisionally considered valid include: * †''Dicerorhinus fusuiensis'' originally described as ''Rhinoceros'' ''fusuiensis'' Early Pleistocene, South China. * †''Dicerorhinus gwebinensis'' Zin-Maung-Maung-Thein et al., 2008 Known from a skull of Pliocene-Early Pleistocene age found in Myanmar. Some authors have considered the skull not distinguishable from that of ''D. sumatrensis''. Historically, ''Dicerorhinus'' was a

wastebasket taxon Wastebasket taxon (also called a wastebin taxon, dustbin taxon or catch-all taxon) is a term used by some taxonomists to refer to a taxon that has the purpose of classifying organisms that do not fit anywhere else. They are typically defined by e ...

. Revisions by several authors over the years have removed many species: Transferred to ''

Stephanorhinus ''Stephanorhinus'' is an extinct genus of two-horned rhinoceros native to Eurasia and North Africa that lived during the Late Pliocene to Late Pleistocene. Species of ''Stephanorhinus'' were the predominant and often only species of rhinoceros in ...

'' *'' Dicerorhinus merckii'' *'' Dicerorhinus hemitoechus'' *''Dicerorhinus etruscus'' *''Dicerorhinus yunchuchenensis'' *''Dicerorhinus jeanvireti'' *''Dicerorhinus choukoutienensis'' (synonym of Merck's rhinoceros) *''Dicerorhinus orientalis'' (synonym of Merck's rhinoceros) *''Dicerorhinus nipponicus'' Transferred to '' Dihoplus'' *''Dicerorhinus megarhinus'' *''Dicerorhinus schleiermacheri'' *''Dicerorhinus ringstroemi'' Transferred to '' Caementodon'' *''Dicerorhinus caucasicus'' Transferred to '' Lartetotherium'' *''Dicerorhinus sansaniensis'' *''Dicerorhinus cixianensis'' Chen and Wu, 1976Deng, T.; Li, S., 2023. Restudy of Rhinocerotini fossils from the Miocene Jiulongkou fauna of China. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 61: 198-211 - DOI: 10.19615/j.cnki.2096-9899.230630 Transferred to '' Rusingaceros'' *''Dicerorhinus leakeyi'' Placement of the Sumatran rhinoceros among recent and subfossil rhinoceros species based on nuclear genomes (Liu, 2021) Bayesian morphological phylogeny (Pandolfi, 2023) Note: This excludes living African rhinoceros species.

References

* Groves, Colin P., and Fred Kurt (1972)
"''Dicerorhinus sumatrensis''"
''Mammalian Species'' (21): 1–6.

{{Authority control Mammal genera Mammal genera with one living species