''Floridaceras'' is an

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 ...

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 ...

rhinocerotid A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

of the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

epoch (early

Hemingfordian The Hemingfordian on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA), typically set from 20,600,000 to 16,300,000 years BP. It is usually considered to overlap the lates ...

), endemic to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, living from around ~20.6–16.3 Ma, existing for approximately .

Taxonomy

''Floridaceras'' was named by Wood (1964). Its type is ''Floridaceras whitei''. It was assigned to

Rhinocerotidae A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

by Wood (1964) and Carroll (1988); and to

Aceratheriinae Aceratheriinae is an extinct subfamily of rhinoceros endemic to Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America, from the Oligocene through the Pliocene. It lived from 33.9 to 3.4 mya, existing for approximately . Taxonomy Aceratheriinae was named by D ...

by Prothero (1998).

Fossil distribution

The only site known is the Thomas Farm Site in

Gilchrist County, Florida Gilchrist County is a County (United States), county located in the North Central Florida, north central part of the U.S. state of Florida. Organized in 1925 from the western part of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua, it is the last county to b ...

, ~20.6–16.3 Ma.

Description

''Floridaceras'' was of unusually large size for a rhinoceros of the Hemingfordian. It would have been roughly comparable to a

black rhinoceros The black rhinoceros (''Diceros bicornis''), also called the black rhino or the hooked-lip rhinoceros, is a species of rhinoceros native to East Africa, East and Southern Africa, including Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Moza ...

in size, much larger than contemporaries such as the '' Menoceras''. Like many primitive Aceratheriines, it has no horn, relatively long limbs and brachydont dentition (indicating it was a browser).

Sources

Miocene rhinoceroses Miocene mammals of North America Fossil taxa described in 1964 {{paleo-oddtoedungulate-stub