Abstract
The remains of fossil rhinoceroses from Laetoli represent at least three taxa: Ceratotherium efficax, Ceratotherium cf. simum, and Diceros sp. The great majority of the material from the Pliocene Laetolil Beds belongs to C. efficax, for which we provide a revised diagnosis. This taxon has been frequently misidentified and inaccurately referred to as C. praecox, C. germanoafricanum, or C. mauritanicum. A cranium from the Upper Ndolanya Beds shows more derived dental features, but a precise assignment to C. germanoafricanum or C. simum is presently not possible. The occurrence of true Diceros in the Laetolil Beds is demonstrated by a partial cranium with incomplete dentition, but very few other specimens can be potentially attributed to this genus. Analysis of occlusal wear patterns suggests that C. efficax was a grazer or possibly a graze-dominated mixed feeder; in either case it probably included a variable component of browse in its diet. The transition from a Diceros-like ectolophodont dentition to the full-fledged plagiolophodonty seen in extant Ceratotherium simum included a substantial period of stasis, spanning at least the interval represented by the Laetolil Beds. A shift in the dietary regime towards increased grazing had occurred by the Upper Ndolanya time, and this trend continued from the early Pleistocene to the Recent. Based on the available fossil record, the split of the two lineages leading to the extant species must have taken place in Africa during the Miocene.
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Acknowledgements
We sincerely thank Terry Harrison for inviting us to undertake this study and facilitating our work in every way; Terri Harrison for good advice; Paul Msemwa and Amandus Kweka in Tanzania; Emma Mbua and Mary Muungu in Kenya; Claude Guérin for showing us the material of D. douariensis; Kurt Heissig and Aleksis Karme. We would like to thank Denis Geraads and the other referees for their good advice and suggestions. We also thank the curators and other staff of the following museums for access to specimens over decades: Athens Museum of Paleontology and Geology, University of Athens, Athens; British Museum of Natural History, London; Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, München; Faculté des Sciences, University of Lyon; Finnish Museum of Natural History, Helsinki; Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Senckenberg, Frankfurt am Main; Institut für Paläontologie der Universität, Wien; Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika, Tervuren; Laboratory of Geology and Palaeontology, University of Thessaloniki; Museum der Naturkunde für Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin; Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris; National Museum of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa; National Museum of Tanzania, Dar Es Salaam; National Museums of Kenya Nairobi; Naturhistorisches Museum, Wien; Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, Stockholm; Rijkmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (Naturalis), Leiden; Royal Zoological Museum, Copenhagen; Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Karlsruhe; Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Stuttgart, and Zoological Museum, Amsterdam. The study visit of EH and MF was funded by a grant from NSF (BCS-0309513) awarded to Terry Harrison, with an additional traveling grant provided for EH by the Nordenskiöld Society in Finland. Financial support for comparative studies was provided to IG by the European Commission’s Research Infrastructure Action (EU-SYNTHESYS: GB-TAF-574, NL-TAF-2513, FR-TAF-2545, DK-TAF-3765) and the Research for Human Origin Initiative (RHOI, under NSF award BCS-0321893).
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Hernesniemi, E., Giaourtsakis, I.X., Evans, A.R., Fortelius, M. (2011). Rhinocerotidae. In: Harrison, T. (eds) Paleontology and Geology of Laetoli: Human Evolution in Context. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9962-4_11
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