Ceratotherium mauritanicum

Ceratotherium mauritanicum
Temporal range: 2.6–0.125 Ma
Late Pliocene– early Late Pleistocene
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Rhinocerotidae
Genus: Ceratotherium
Species:
C. mauritanicum
Binomial name
Ceratotherium mauritanicum
(Pomel, 1888)
Synonyms
  • Ceratotherium efficax

Ceratotherium mauritanicum is a species of fossil African rhinoceros found in the Late Pliocene to early Late Pleistocene of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria.[1] It is disputed as to whether remains from the Pliocene of East Africa belong to this species, and if so, whether C. mauritanicum is ancestral to the modern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum). During the early Late Pleistocene, sometime between 120,000–57,000 years ago, it was replaced in North Africa by the modern white rhinoceros.[2]

  1. ^ Guérin, C. & Faure, M. (2007). "XI. Étude paléontologique sur les mammifères du Pléistocène supérieure de l'oued El Akarit" (PDF). In Roset, J.-P. & Harbi-Riahi, M. (eds.). El Akarit - Un site archéologique du Paléolithique moyen dans la sud de la Tunisie. Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations. pp. 365–388. ISBN 978-2-86538-310-8.
  2. ^ Aouraghe, Hassan; van der Made, Jan; Haddoumi, Hamid; Agustí, Jordi; Benito-Calvo, Alfonso; Rodríguez-Hidalgo, Antonio; Lazagabaster, Ignacio A.; Souhir, Mohamed; Mhamdi, Hicham; El Atmani, Abderrahman; Ewague, Abdelhadi; Sala-Ramos, Robert; Chacón, M. Gema (2022-10-03). "New materials of the white rhinoceros Ceratotherium simum and auerochs Bos primigenius from a Late Pleistocene terrace of the Oued el Haï (NE Morocco) - two elements of the Maghrebi Palearctic fauna". Historical Biology. 34 (10): 1981–1999. doi:10.1080/08912963.2021.1995381. ISSN 0891-2963.