PBDB Taxon

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Morphology	Ecology and taphonomy	External Literature Search	Age range and collections

Paraceratherium

Mammalia - Perissodactyla - Paraceratheriidae

Taxonomy

Paraceratherium was named by Forster Cooper (1911). It is not extant. Its type is Paraceratherium bugtiense.

It was assigned to Hyracodontidae by Radinsky (1966), Carroll (1988) and Ye et al. (2003); to Indricotheriidae by Holbrook (1999) and Qiu et al. (2004); to Indricotheriinae by Prothero and Schoch (1989) and Sen et al. (2011); and to Paraceratheriinae by Qiu and Wang (2007) and Wang et al. (2016).

Species

Baluchitherium osborni, P. asiaticum (syn. Indricotherium transouralicum), P. bugtiense (type species), P. grangeri, P. huangheense, P. lepidum (syn. P. zhajremensis), P. linxiaense

Species lacking formal opinion data

P. albigense

Synonyms

Thaumastotherium was named by Forster-Cooper (1913). It is extant. Its type is Thaumastotherium osborni.

It was replaced with Baluchitherium by Forster-Cooper (1913); it was synonymized subjectively with Paraceratherium by Prothero and Schoch (1989).
Indricotherium was named by Borissiak (1916). It is not extant.

It was synonymized subjectively with Paraceratherium by Qiu and Wang (2007).

It was assigned to Indricotheriinae by Prothero and Schoch (1989); to Hyracodontidae by Radinsky (1966), Carroll (1988) and Ye et al. (2003); and to Indricotheriidae by Dashzeveg (1996) and Qiu et al. (2004).
Baluchitherium was named by Forster Cooper (1913). It is not extant. Its type is Thaumastotherium osborni.

It was synonymized subjectively with Paraceratherium by Matthew (1931), Prothero and Schoch (1989), Fortelius and Kappelman (1993) and Qiu and Wang (2007).

It was assigned to Baluchitheriinae by Osborn (1923); and to Rhinocerotidae by Carroll (1988).

Synonymy list

Year	Name and author
1911	Paraceratherium Forster Cooper p. 711
1913	Baluchitherium Forster Cooper
1913	Thaumastotherium Forster-Cooper p. 377
1916	Indricotherium Borissiak p. 131
1923	Baluchitherium Osborn
1966	Indricotherium Radinsky p. 635
1966	Paraceratherium Radinsky p. 635
1988	Baluchitherium Carroll
1988	Indricotherium Carroll
1988	Paraceratherium Carroll
1989	Indricotherium Prothero and Schoch p. 534
1989	Paraceratherium Prothero and Schoch p. 534
1996	Indricotherium Dashzeveg p. 9
1999	Paraceratherium Holbrook p. 346
2003	Paraceratherium Ye et al. p. 223
2003	Indricotherium Ye et al. p. 228
2004	Indricotherium Qiu et al. p. 191
2004	Paraceratherium Qiu et al. p. 191
2007	Paraceratherium Qiu and Wang
2011	Paraceratherium Sen et al. p. 414
2016	Paraceratherium Wang et al.

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Rank	Name	Author
kingdom	Animalia	()
—	Bilateria
—	Eubilateria	Ax 1987
—	Deuterostomia
phylum	Chordata	Haeckel 1874
subphylum	Vertebrata
superclass	Gnathostomata
—	Osteichthyes	()
subclass	Sarcopterygii	()
subclass	Dipnotetrapodomorpha	(Nelson 2006)
subclass	Tetrapodomorpha	()
—	Tetrapoda
—	Reptiliomorpha
—	Anthracosauria
subclass	Amphibiosauria	Kuhn 1967
—	Cotylosauria	()
—	Amniota
subclass	Synapsida
—	Therapsida	()
infraorder	Cynodontia	()
—	Mammaliamorpha
—	Mammaliaformes
class	Mammalia

Rank	Name	Author
—	Theriamorpha	(Rowe 1993)
—	Theriiformes	()
—	Trechnotheria
—	Cladotheria
—	Zatheria
subclass	Tribosphenida	()
subclass	Theria
—	Eutheria	()
—	Placentalia
—	Boreoeutheria
—	Laurasiatheria
—	Scrotifera
—	Euungulata
—	Panperissodactyla
superorder	Perissodactylamorpha
order	Perissodactyla	()
—	Tapiromorpha	(Haeckel 1873)
—	Ceratomorpha	(Wood 1937)
superfamily	Rhinocerotoidea
family	Paraceratheriidae	Osborn 1923
subfamily	Paraceratheriinae	Osborn 1923
genus	Paraceratherium	Forster Cooper 1911

If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.

G. †Paraceratherium Forster Cooper 1911

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†Paraceratherium asiaticum Borissiak 1923

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Invalid names: Indricotherium transouralicum Pavlova 1922 [synonym]

†Paraceratherium bugtiense Forster Cooper 1911

†Paraceratherium grangeri Osborn 1923

†Paraceratherium huangheense Li et al. 2017

†Paraceratherium lepidum Xu and Wang 1978

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Invalid names: Paraceratherium zhajremensis Bayshashov 1988 [synonym]

†Paraceratherium linxiaense Deng et al. 2021

Invalid names: Baluchitherium Forster Cooper 1913 [synonym], Indricotherium Borissiak 1916 [synonym]

Diagnosis

No diagnoses are available

Measurements

No measurements are available

Composition:

phosphaticsubp

Environment:

terrestrialsubc

Locomotion:

actively mobilec

Life habit:

ground dwellingsubo

Diet:

browsersubo

Reproduction:

viviparoussubc

Created:

2005-08-31 15:03:12

Modified:

2005-08-31 17:03:12

Source: subo = suborder, subc = subclass, c = class, subp = subphylum

References: Colbert and Schoch 1998, Ji et al. 2002, Lillegraven 1979, Hendy et al. 2009, Carroll 1988

Age range

Maximum range based only on fossils: base of the Late/Upper Eocene to the top of the Rupelian or 37.20000 to 28.10000 Ma
Minimum age of oldest fossil (stem group age): 33.9 Ma

Collections (33 total)

Time interval	Ma	Country or state	Original ID and collection number
Houldjinian	37.2 - 33.9	China (Nei Mongol)	Baluchitherium sp. (72147)
Late/Upper Eocene	37.2 - 33.9	China (Nei Mongol)	P. grangeri (180942)
Late/Upper Eocene	37.2 - 33.9	China (Yunnan)	Indricotherium sp. (182580)
Early/Lower Oligocene	33.9 - 28.4	China (Nei Mongol)	P. lepidum (175255) P. sp. (175386) P. transouralicum, P. grangeri (176066)
Early/Lower Oligocene	33.9 - 28.4	Pakistan	Baluchitherium bugtiense, Baluchitherium osborni (77785)
Early/Lower Oligocene	33.9 - 28.4	China (Gansu)	P. sp. (182883 182884 182899)
Early/Lower Oligocene	33.9 - 28.4	Mongolia	Baluchitherium grangeri (53979)
Rupelian	33.9 - 28.1	Kazakhstan	P. sp. (64415)
MP 25	33.9 - 23.03	Spain (Cuenca)	P. albigense (184097)
Oligocene	33.9 - 23.03	Pakistan	Thaumastotherium osborni, P. bugtiense (128387)
Oligocene	33.9 - 23.03	Bulgaria	Indricotherium transouralicum (193755)
Late/Upper Oligocene	28.4 - 23.03	Kazakhstan (Kustanay)	Indricotherium transouralicum, Indricotherium asiaticum (73999)
Late/Upper Oligocene	28.4 - 23.03	Mongolia	P. sp. 1 (181061)
Late/Upper Oligocene	28.4 - 23.03	China (Nei Mongol)	Baluchitherium sp. (73807)
Late/Upper Oligocene	28.4 - 23.03	China (Gansu)	Indricotherium sp. (175388) P. linxiaense (227298)
Late/Upper Oligocene	28.4 - 23.03	Turkey (Anatolia)	P. sp. (182500 183978)
Late/Upper Oligocene	28.4 - 23.03	Kazakhstan (Aktyubinskaya)	Indricotherium sp. (74001)
Late/Upper Oligocene	28.4 - 23.03	Kazakhstan	Indricotherium sp. (74003 74899) P. sp. (182747) P. sp., P. prohorovi (64413) P. zhajremensis (182628)
Late/Upper Oligocene	28.4 - 23.03	China (Xinjiang)	P. lepidum (182889 182890) P. lipidus (182888)
Late/Upper Oligocene	28.4 - 23.03	Pakistan (Baluchistan)	P. bugtiense (78362)
Late/Upper Oligocene - Early/Lower Miocene	28.4 - 15.97	Pakistan (Balochistan)	P. bugtiense (227410)