In some sections, such as a lengthy review of taxonomic rules, Prothero lays out the basics of how species are named in textbook fashion for those unacquainted with such arcana. The problem is that the audience for all these particulars isn’t clear. Through copious background details, Prothero celebrates great and lesser-known names in the history of paleontology, as well as geological and taxonomic nitty gritty. Modern rhinos might look prehistoric, but they’re actually quite different from their varied predecessors. While a giant rhino without a horn might look odd compared to living species, Prothero points out that Paraceratherium belonged to a major and totally-extinct group of rhinos, and that most fossil rhinos don’t show any evidence of horns at all. Prothero recounts the lives of fossil mammal researchers such as Walter Granger, Henry Guy Ellcock Pilgrim, Clive Forster Cooper, and Zhou Ming-Zhen, among others, in detail before diving into the geological particulars of where Paraceratherium bones are found and where the giant fit in the wider rhino family tree. There is no introduction to what the giant rhinos were, or even why we should care at all that they existed.įor more than the first half of the book, in fact, Paraceratherium only appears as scattered fragments that puzzled and inspired successive generations of paleontologists. The first chapter of the relatively slim book – “Quicksand!” – jumps right into the romantic tales of fossil rhino discoveries in Mongolia during the American Museum of Natural History’s celebrated 1920s expeditions to the region. But Prothero spends no time trying to draw in those who are not already enamored with the titan. The rhino was far larger than any alive today, and was an iconic member of mammal faunas that roamed Eurasia between about 35 and 20 million years ago. Unauthorized use is prohibited.įor paleontology aficionados, the majesty of Paraceratherium is self-evident. Yet, as paleontologist Donald Prothero demonstrates in his new book Rhinoceros Giants, old misconceptions about Paraceratherium cling to our imagination even as paleontologists are slowly piecing together a more complete picture of the superlative mammal. The enormous rhino is practically required to make appearances in books, documentaries, and museum displays about fossil mammals. Stretching over 26 feet long, and often said to weigh as much as five elephants, Paraceratherium has traditionally been heralded as the largest mammal ever to tromp over the Earth. The most massive dinosaurs, of course, are the recipients of such scale-dependent adoration, and the same is true of the great extinct rhinoceros Paraceratherium (or “ Indricotherium“, or “ Baluchitherium“, or “ Dzungariotherium“, but I’ll get to that in a moment.) The lifestyles of the large and charismatic often gain far more attention those of smaller, equally-strange creatures that thrived alongside the leviathans during prehistory.

Prehistoric rhinoceros fossil