Sinotherium

Sinotherium
Temporal range: Miocene–Pliocene
Skull of Sinotherium
A drawing showing Sinotherium lagrelii
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Rhinocerotidae
Subfamily: Elasmotheriinae
Genus: Sinotherium
Ringstrom, 1923
Type species
Sinotherium lagrelii
Ringstrom, 1923
Other species
  • S. zaisanensis?

Sinotherium ("Chinese Beast") is an extinct genus of single-horned elasmotheriine rhinocerotids that lived from the late Miocene (Tortonian - Messinian) to Early Pliocene. It was ancestral to Elasmotherium, demonstrating a very important evolutionary transition from nasal-horned elasmotheriines to frontal-horned elasmotheriines. Its fossils have been found in the Karabulak Formation of Kazakhstan, lower jaw and teeth have been found in Mongolia, and a partial skull is known from the upper part of the Liushu Formation of western China. Sinotherium diverged from the ancestral genus, Iranotherium, first found in Iran, during the early Pliocene. Some experts prefer to lump Sinotherium, and Iranotherium into Elasmotherium.