Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T13:18:37.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Miocene rhinoceroses from the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Donald R. Prothero  and
Earl M. Manning
Donald R. Prothero
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Occidental College, Los Angeles, California 90041
Earl M. Manning
Affiliation:
Museum of Geoscience, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge 70803
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Four species of rhinoceros occur together in the Barstovian (middle Miocene) faunas of southeast Texas, a unique situation in the Miocene of North America. Two are assigned to normal contemporary High Plains species of Aphelops and Teleoceras, and two to dwarf species of Peraceras and Teleoceras. The dwarf Peraceras is a new species, P. hessei. The dwarf Teleoceras is assigned to Leidy's (1865) species “Rhinoceros” meridianus, previously referred to Aphelops. “Aphelops” profectus is here reassigned to Peraceras.

The late Arikareean (early Miocene) Derrick Farm rhino, erroneously referred to “Caenopus premitis” by Wood and Wood (1937), is here referred to Menoceras arikarense. Menoceras barbouri is reported from the early Hemingfordian (early Miocene) Garvin Gully local fauna of southeast Texas. The rhinos from the early Clarendonian Lapara Creek Fauna are tentatively referred to Teleoceras cf. major.

The three common genera of middle late Miocene rhinoceroses of North America (Aphelops, Peraceras, Teleoceras) are rediagnosed. Aphelops and Peraceras are more closely related to the Eurasian Aceratherium and Chilotherium (all four together forming the Aceratheriinae) than they are to the American Teleoceras. Contrary to Heissig (1973), Teleoceras is more closely related to the living rhinoceroses and their kin (together forming the Rhinocerotini) than it is to the Aceratheriinae.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , March 1987 , pp. 388 - 423
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Archer, M. 1975. Abnormal dental development and its significance in dasyurids and other marsupials. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 17:251–265.Google Scholar
Barbour, E. H. 1906. Notice of a new fossil rhinoceros from Sioux County, Nebraska: Diceratherium arikarense. Publication of the Nebraska Geological Survey, ser. 1, 2:313–318.Google Scholar
Butler, P. M. 1967. Dental merism and tooth development. Journal of Dental Research, 46:845–850.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cope, E. D. 1873. On some new extinct Mammalia from the Tertiary of the Plains. Palaeontological Bulletin, 14:1–2.Google Scholar
Cope, E. D. 1874. Report on the stratigraphy and Pliocene vertebrate paleontology of northern Colorado. U.S. Geological and Geographic Survey of the Territories, Bulletin, 14:9–28.Google Scholar
Cope, E. D. 1875. Report on the geology of that part of northwestern New Mexico examined during the field season of 1874. Annual Report upon the Geographical Explorations and Surveys West of the 100th Meridian, Appendix LL:981–1017.Google Scholar
Cope, E. D. 1877. Report upon the extinct Vertebrata obtained in New Mexico by parties of the expedition of 1874. Report of the U.S. Geological Survey West of the 100th Meridian, 4(2):1–370.Google Scholar
Cope, E. D. 1880. A new genus of rhinoceros. American Naturalist, 14:540.Google Scholar
Dalquest, W. W. and Hughes, J. T. 1966. A new mammalian local fauna from the lower Pliocene of Texas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, 69:79–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deussen, A. 1924. Geology of the Coastal Plain of Texas west of the Brazos River. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 126, 145 p.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frick, C. 1937. Horned ruminants of North America. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 69:1–669.Google Scholar
Galbreath, E. C. 1953. A contribution to the Tertiary geology and paleontology of northeastern Colorado. University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions, 4:1–120.Google Scholar
Harrison, J. A. and Manning, E. M. 1983. Extreme carpal variability in Teleoceras (Rhinocerotidae, Mammalia). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 3:58–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hatcher, J. B. 1894. A median horned rhinoceros from the Loup Fork beds of Nebraska. American Geologist, 13:149–150.Google Scholar
Hay, O. P. 1902. Bibliography and catalog of the fossil Vertebrata of North America. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 179, 868 p.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heissig, K. 1973. Die Unterfamilien und Tribus der rezenten und fossilien Rhinocerotidae (Mammalia). Säugetierkundliche Mitteilungen, München, 21(1):25–30.Google Scholar
Hesse, C. J. 1943. A preliminary report on the Miocene vertebrate faunas of southeast Texas. Proceedings of the Texas Academy of Science, 26:157–179.Google Scholar
Hunt, R. M. 1972. Miocene amphicyonids (Mammalia, Carnivora) from the Agate Spring Quarries, Sioux County, Nebraska. American Museum Novitates, 2506:1–39.Google Scholar
Jepsen, G. L. 1966. Early Eocene bat from Wyoming. Science, 154(3754):1333–1339.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laurie, A. 1982. Behavioural ecology of the greater one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis). Journal of Zoology, 196:307–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leidy, J. 1865. On the species of Rhinoceros. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1865, p. 94.Google Scholar
Leidy, J. 1869. On the extinct Mammalia of Dakota and Nebraska, including an account of some allied forms from other localities, together with a synopsis of the mammalian remains of North America. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 7:1–472.Google Scholar
Lucas, S. G., Schoch, R. M. and Manning, E. 1981. The systematics of Forstercooperia, a middle to late Eocene hyracodontid (Perissodactyla: Rhinocerotoidea) from Asia and western North America. Journal of Paleontology, 55:826–841.Google Scholar
MacFadden, B. J. and Skinner, M. F. 1977. Earliest known Hipparion from Holarctica. Nature, 265:532–533CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacFadden, B. J. and Skinner, M. F. 1981. Earliest Holarctic hipparion, Cormohipparion goorisi n. sp. (Mammalia, Equidae), from the Barstovian (medial Miocene) Texas Gulf Coastal Plain. Journal of Paleontology, 55:619–627Google Scholar
Matthew, W. D. 1899. A provisional classification of the fresh-water Tertiary of the West. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 12:19–75.Google Scholar
Matthew, W. D. 1901. Fossil mammals of the Tertiary of northeastern Colorado. Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History, 1(7):355–447.Google Scholar
Matthew, W. D. 1931. Critical observations on the phylogeny of the rhinoceroses. University of California Publications in Geological Science, 20:1–9.Google Scholar
Matthew, W. D. 1932. A review of the rhinoceroses with a description of Aphelops material from the Pliocene of Texas. University of California Publications in Geological Science, 20:411–480.Google Scholar
McBride, E. F., Lindemann, W. L. and Freeman, P. S. 1968. Lithology and petrology of the Gueydan (Catahoula) Formation in south Texas. University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, Report of Investigations, 63:1–122.Google Scholar
Osborn, H. F. 1900. Phylogeny of the rhinoceroses of Europe. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 13:229–267.Google Scholar
Osborn, H. F. 1904. New Miocene rhinoceroses with revision of known species. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 20:307–326.Google Scholar
Patton, T. H. 1969. Miocene and Pliocene artiodactyls, Texas Gulf Coastal Plain. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum, Biological Science, 14:115–226.Google Scholar
Patton, T. H. and Taylor, B. E. 1971. The Synthetoceratinae (Mammalia, Tylopoda, Protoceratidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 145:119–218.Google Scholar
Patton, T. H. and Taylor, B. E. 1973. The Protoceratinae (Mammalia, Tylopoda, Protoceratidae) and the systematics of the Protoceratidae. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 150:347–414.Google Scholar
Pavlow, M. 1892. Etudes sur l'histoire paléontologique des ongules. VI. Les Rhinoceridae de la Russie et le développement des Rhinoceridae en général. Bulletin de Société des Naturalistes de Moscou, 6:137–221.Google Scholar
Peterson, O. A. 1906. Preliminary description of two new species of the genus Diceratherium Marsh, from the Agate Spring Fossil Quarry. Science, new ser. 24(609):281–283.Google ScholarPubMed
Peterson, O. A. 1920. The American diceratheres. Memoir of the Carnegie Museum, 7:399–476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prothero, D. R., Manning, E. and Hanson, C. B. 1986. The phylogeny of the Rhinocerotoidea (Mammalia, Perissodactyla). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society of London, 87:341–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prothero, D. R., and Rensberger, J. M. 1985. Preliminary magnetostratigraphy of the John Day Formation, Oregon, and the North American Oligocene–Miocene boundary. Newsletter of Stratigraphy, 15:59–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prothero, D. R., and Sereno, P. C. 1980. Allometry and paleoecology of medial Miocene dwarf rhinoceroses from the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, 12(7):504.Google Scholar
Prothero, D. R., and Sereno, P. C. 1982. Allometry and paleoecology of medial Miocene dwarf rhinoceroses from the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain. Paleobiology, 8:16–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinn, J. H. 1955. Miocene Equidae of the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain. University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, Publication 5516:5–90.Google Scholar
Rose, K. D. and Smith, B. H. 1979. Dental anomaly in the early Eocene condylarth Ectocion. Journal of Paleontology, 53:756–760.Google Scholar
Schultz, C. B. and Falkenbach, C. H. 1941. Ticholeptinae, a new subfamily of oreodonts. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 79:1–105.Google Scholar
Skinner, M. F. and MacFadden, B. J. 1977. Cormohipparion n. gen. (Mammalia, Equidae) from the North American Miocene (Barstovian–Clarendonian). Journal of Paleontology, 51:912–926.Google Scholar
Stock, C. and Furlong, E. L. 1926. New canid and rhinocerotid remains from the Ricardo Pliocene of the Mohave Desert, California. University of California Publications in Geological Science, 16:43–60.Google Scholar
Tanner, L. G. 1969. A new rhinoceros from the Nebraska Miocene. Bulletin of the University of Nebraska State Museum, 8(6):395–412.Google Scholar
Tanner, L. G. 1972. A new species of Menoceras from the Marsland Formation of Nebraska. Bulletin of the University of Nebraska State Museum, 9(8):205–213.Google Scholar
Tanner, L. G. 1976. A new species of Peraceras from the Lower Pliocene of Boyd County, Nebraska. Proceedings of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences, 86:50.Google Scholar
Tanner, L. G. 1977. A new species of Diceratherium from the Lower Pliocene (Valentinian) of Boyd County, Nebraska. Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences, 4:121–128Google Scholar
Taylor, B. E. and Webb, S. D. 1976. Miocene Leptomerycidae (Artiodactyla, Ruminantia) and their relationships. American Museum Novitates, 2596:1–22.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. M. S. 1982. Aberrant maxillary third molars, morphology and developmental relations, p. 64–74. In Kurten, B. (ed.), Teeth: Form, Function, and Evolution. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Tedford, R. H. 1970. Principles and practice of mammalian geochronology in North America. Proceedings of the North American Paleontological Convention, Pt. F, p. 666–703.Google Scholar
Tedford, R. H. et al. 1987. Faunal succession and biochronology of the Arikareean through Hemphillian interval (late Oligocene through late Miocene epochs), North America. In Woodburne, M. O. (ed.), Cenozoic Mammals: Their Temporal Record, Biostratigraphy, and Bio-chronology. University of California Press, Berkeley, California.Google Scholar
Troxell, E. L. 1921. A study of Diceratherium and the diceratheres. American Journal of Science, 202(10):197–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wahlert, J. H. 1976. Jimomys labaughi, a new geomyid rodent from the early Barstovian of North America. American Museum Novitates, 2591:1–6.Google Scholar
Weeks, A. W. 1933. Lissie, Reynosa, and Upland Terrace deposits of Coastal Plain of Texas between Brazos River and Rio Grande. Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, 17:453–487.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. A. 1956. Miocene formations and vertebrate biostratigraphic units, Texas Coastal Plain. Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, 40:2233–2246.Google Scholar
Wood, H. E. II. 1964. Rhinoceroses from the Thomas Farm Miocene of Florida. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 130:361–386.Google Scholar
Wood, H. E. II. and Wood, A. E. 1937. Mid-Tertiary vertebrates from the Texas Coastal Plain: fact and fable. American Midland Naturalist, 18:129–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yatkola, D. and Tanner, L. G. 1979. Brachypotherium from the Tertiary of North America. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, 77:1–11.Google Scholar