Paraceratheriidae
Paraceratheriidae is an extinct family of long-limbed, hornless rhinocerotoids native to Asia and Eastern Europe that originated in the Eocene epoch and lived until the end of the Oligocene.
| Paraceratheriidae Temporal range: Middle Eocene to Late Oligocene, | |
|---|---|
| Skeleton of Paraceratherium | |
| Skeleton of Juxia | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Perissodactyla |
| Superfamily: | Rhinocerotoidea |
| Family: | †Paraceratheriidae Osborn, 1923 |
| Subgroups | |
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| Synonyms | |
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The earliest paraceratheres like Juxia were comparable in size with living rhinoceroses with a body mass of three quarters to one and a half tons, while later members grew substantially larger, with the largest representatives (Paraceratherium, Dzungariotherium) estimated to have a body mass of 17 to possibly over 20 tons, making them the largest land mammals to have ever lived.
Their range spanned from Eastern Europe in the west, the Indian Subcontinent in the south, to Northern China in the east.
They are thought to have been primarily browsers.
Although considered a subfamily of the family Hyracodontidae by some authors, recent authors treat the paraceratheres as a distinct family, Paraceratheriidae (Wang et al. 2016 recover hyracodonts as more basal than paraceratheres). Paraceratheriidae is generally recovered as the sister group of Rhinocerotidae, the group which contains modern rhinoceroses.