Elasmotherium

Elasmotherium is an extinct giant rhinoceros.

Elasmotherium Temporal range: late Pliocene to late Pleistocene, 2.6 mya – ~50 kya
Elasmotherium skull
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Perissodactyla
Family:	Rhinocerotidae
Genus:	Elasmotherium J. Fischer, 1808

Artist's impression

It lived from 2.6 million years ago (mya) to about 50,000 years ago. Fossils have been found in Europe and Asia.^[1] This giant lived and grazed on the Eurasian steppes (grasslands).

Description

Elasmotherium was a heavily-built quadruped that walked on four hoofed legs. Its legs were longer than those of other rhinos and were adapted for galloping, giving it a horse-like gait.

It probably had a large horn on its forehead, but fossils of the horn have not been found. The teeth were tall-crowned and were covered with cement and wrinkled enamel. Its mouth at the front was a beak; there are no teeth in front of the molars.

Morphology

The specimens of E. sibiricum are up to 4.5 m (15 ft) in body length with shoulder heights over 2 m (6 ft 7 in). E. caucasicum was at least 5 m (16 ft) in body length with an estimated mass of 3.6–4.5 tonnes (4–5 short tons). This is based on isolated molars which are larger than those of the Siberian species.^[2]

Both species were among the largest in the family Rhinocerotidae, comparable in size to the woolly mammoth and larger than the woolly rhinoceros.^[3][4] The feet were unguligrade,^[5] the front larger than the rear, with 4 digits at the front and 3 at the rear.^[6]