''Parelasmotherium'' is an extinct

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 ...

s that lived in Northern China about 11.1 million years ago in 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 ...

. With its large body and its hypsodont grazing teeth, it belonged to the subfamily Elasmotheriinae and was a relative of the later '' Elasmotherium'', which was widespread over large parts of northern Asia in the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

. It was named in 1923 and was once considered to be a synonym of '' Sinotherium''. Three species of this genus have been named, although analysis of their teeth in 2022 suggested that two of them (''P. simplum'' and ''P. linxiaense'') are not closely related to the remaining species and should be placed in a separate genus.

History

Hugo Killgus established the genus ''Parelasmotherium'' in 1923, as a giant elasmotheriine rhinoceros to which he assigned the species ''Parelasmotherium schansiense'' based on fossil remains that were collected from Shanxi, China.

References

{{italictitle Prehistoric rhinoceroses Prehistoric placental genera Miocene rhinoceroses Miocene mammals of Asia Fossils of China Fossil taxa described in 1923