''Rhinoceros'' 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 ...

comprising one-horned rhinoceroses. This

scientific name In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

was proposed by Swedish

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the science, scientific study of naming, defining (Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxon, taxa (si ...

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in 1758. The genus contains two species, the

Indian rhinoceros The Indian rhinoceros (''Rhinoceros unicornis''), also known as the greater one-horned rhinoceros, great Indian rhinoceros or Indian rhino, is a species of rhinoceros found in the Indian subcontinent. It is the second largest living rhinocer ...

(''Rhinoceros unicornis'') and the

Javan rhinoceros The Javan rhinoceros (''Rhinoceros sondaicus''), Javan rhino, Sunda rhinoceros or lesser one-horned rhinoceros is a critically endangered member of the genus ''Rhinoceros'', of the rhinoceros family Rhinocerotidae, and one of the five remainin ...

(''Rhinoceros sondaicus''). Although both members are threatened, the Javan rhinoceros is one of the most endangered large

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

s in the world with only 60 individuals surviving in

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

(

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

). The word 'rhinoceros' means "nose-horn" in

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

Etymology

The genus name ''Rhinoceros'' comes from the

words ῥινο- (''rhino-''), meaning "of the nose" and κέρας (''kerás''), meaning "horn".

Classification

The genus ''Rhinoceros'' comprises: *

(''R. unicornis'') Indian subcontinent *

(''R. sondaicus'') Southeast Asia *†'' R. sivalensis'' Falconer and Cautley, 1846 northern Indian subcontinent (

Siwalik Hills The Sivalik Hills, also known as Churia Hills, are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas. The literal translation of "Sivalik" is 'tresses of Shiva'. The hills are known for their numerous fossils, and are also home to the Soanian Middle Pale ...

)

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Early Pleistocene The Early Pleistocene is an unofficial epoch (geology), sub-epoch in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, representing the earliest division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. It is currently esti ...

*†'' R. platyrhinus'' Falconer and Cautley 1847 syn '' Punjabitherium'' Khan (1971) Upper Siwaliks, Indian subcontinent, Early Pleistocene to early

Middle Pleistocene The Chibanian, more widely known as the Middle Pleistocene (its previous informal name), is an Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale or a Stage (stratigraphy), stage in chronostratigraphy, being a division of the Pleistocen ...

, India. Largest species in the genus. *†'' R. sinensis'' Owen, 1870 Has been used as 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 ...

used to refer to rhinoceros material from the Pleistocene of China, with various specimens belong to other ''Rhinoceros'' species, ''

Dicerorhinus ''Dicerorhinus'' (Greek: "two" (dio), "horn" (keratos), "nose" (rhinos)) is a genus of the family Rhinocerotidae, consisting of a single extant species, the two-horned Sumatran rhinoceros (''D. sumatrensis''), and several extinct species. The ge ...

'' and ''

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 ...

,'' though it is possible that some remains attributed to ''Rhinoceros sinensis'' represents a valid and distinct species of ''Rhinoceros''. The earliest remains of the genus are known 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 ...

, represented by remains such as an indeterminate species found in deposits in Myanmar dating to around 8-9 million years ago. The species ''"Rhinoceros" philippinensis'' from the early Middle Pleistocene of the Philippines and "''Rhinoceros" sinensis hayasakai'' from the Early-Middle Pleistocene of Taiwan have been transferred to ''

Nesorhinus ''Nesorhinus'' is an extinct genus of rhinoceros from the Pleistocene of Asia. It contains two species, ''Nesorhinus philippinensis'' (formerly ''Rhinoceros philippinensis'') from Luzon, Philippines and ''Nesorhinus hayasakai'' (formerly ''Rhinoce ...

,'' which appears to be closely related to ''Rhinoceros.'' While ''Rhinoceros fusuiensis'' Yan et al. 2014 from the Early Pleistocene of South China has been transferred to ''Dicerorhinus.'' Relationships among Late Pleistocene and modern rhinoceros genera, based on nuclear DNA, after Liu et al, 2021:

Bayesian Thomas Bayes ( ; c. 1701 – 1761) was an English statistician, philosopher, and Presbyterian minister. Bayesian ( or ) may be either any of a range of concepts and approaches that relate to statistical methods based on Bayes' theorem Bayes ...

morphological phylogeny after Pandolfi, 2023 Note: This excludes living African rhinoceros species.

References

External links

Rhinocerotina Mammal genera Extant Miocene first appearances Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Long stubs with short prose {{oddtoedungulate-stub