Teleoceras

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Teleoceras Fossil range: early Miocene to early Pliocene[1]
Teleoceras
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Perissodactyla Family: Rhinocerotidae Genus: †Teleoceras Hatcher, 1894
Type species
†Teleoceras major
Species[2]
†T. americanum †T. brachyrhinum †T. hicksi †T. fossiger †T. guymonense †T. major †T. medicornutum †T. meridianum †T. proterum
Synonyms
†Mesoceras (Cook, 1930)[3] †Paraphelops Lane, 1927[4]

Teleoceras is an extinct genus of grazing rhinoceros that lived in North America during the Miocene epoch, which ended about 5.3 million years ago, all the way to the early Pliocene epoch (Prothero, 2005). Teleoceras had shorter legs than modern rhinos, and a barrel chest, making its build more like that of a hippopotamus than a modern rhino. Like the hippo, it was also semi-aquatic. Teleoceras had a single small nasal horn.

Teleoceras is the most common fossil in the Ashfall Fossil Beds of Nebraska. In fact, its remains were so numerous and concentrated that the building housing the greatest concentraion of Ashfall fossils is dubbed the "Rhino Barn". Most of the skeletons are preserved in a nearly-complete state. One extraordinary specimen includes the remains of a Teleoceras calf trying to suckle from its mother.

Contents 1 See also 2 Notes 3 References 4 External links

[edit] See also

• Ashfall Fossil Beds

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• McKenna, Malcolm C., and Bell, Susan K. 1997. Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level. Columbia University Press, New York, 631 pp. ISBN 0-231-11013-8
• Prothero, Donald R. 2005. The Evolution of North American Rhinoceroses. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 218 pp. ISBN 0-521-83240-3

[edit] External links

• Ashfall Fossil Beds