query: parent_taxon sinotherium
supports: The Persian Gulf is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Indian Ocean (Gulf of Oman) through the Strait of Hormuz and lies between Iran to the northeast and the Arabian Peninsula to the southwest. The Shatt al-Arab river delta forms the northwest shoreline. Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey (Turkish: ), is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a diverse cultural heritage. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Greece to the west; Bulgaria to the northwest; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the south. The Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, which together form the Turkish Straits, divide Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia. Turkey's location has given it geopolitical and strategic importance throughout history. Tehran ( "Tehrn") is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With a population of around 9 million in the city and 16 million in the wider metropolitan area, Tehran is the most populous city of Iran, the 2nd-most populous city in Western Asia and the 3rd-largest metropolitan area in the Middle East. It is ranked 29th in the world by the population of its metropolitan area. Iran (, also , ; ' ), also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (' ), is a sovereign state in Western Asia. It is bordered to the northwest by Armenia, the "de facto" Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, and Azerbaijan; to the north by the Caspian Sea; to the northeast by Turkmenistan; to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan; to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman; and to the west by Turkey and Iraq. Comprising a land area of , it is the second-largest country in the Middle East and the 18th-largest in the world. With 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the world's 17th-most-populous country. It is the only country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The country's central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, make it of great geostrategic importance. Tehran is the country's capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic center. The Pliocene (also Pleiocene) Epoch is the epoch in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58 million years BP. It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch. Prior to the 2009 revision of the geologic time scale, which placed the four most recent major glaciations entirely within the Pleistocene, the Pliocene also included the Gelasian stage, which lasted from 2.588 to 1.806 million years ago, and is now included in the Pleistocene. The Miocene is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words (', less) and (', new) and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene Epoch and is followed by the Pliocene Epoch. Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, (14 November 1797  22 February 1875) was a British lawyer and the foremost geologist of his day. He is best known as the author of "Principles of Geology", which popularized James Hutton's concepts of uniformitarianismthe idea that the Earth was shaped by the same processes still in operation today. "Principles of Geology" also challenged theories popularized by Georges Cuvier, which were the most accepted and circulated ideas about geology in England at the time. The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed inland body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It is in an endorheic basin (it has no outflows) located between Europe and Asia. It is bound by Kazakhstan to the northeast, Russia to the northwest, Azerbaijan to the west, Iran to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southeast. Elasmotherium ("Thin Plate Beast"), also known as the Giant Rhinoceros or Giant Siberian Unicorn, is an extinct genus of rhinoceros endemic to Eurasia during the Late Pliocene through the Pleistocene, documented from 2.6 Ma to as late as 29,000 years ago in the Late Pleistocene. Three species are recognised. The best known, "E. sibiricum", was the size of a mammoth and is thought to have borne a large, thick horn on its forehead. Theories about the function of this horn include defence, attracting mates, driving away competitors, sweeping snow from the grass in winter and digging for water and plant roots. Like all rhinoceroses, elasmotheres were herbivorous. Unlike any others, its high-crowned molars were ever-growing. Its legs were longer than those of other rhinos and were adapted for galloping, giving it a horse-like gait. Invertebrates are animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a "backbone" or "spine"), derived from the notochord. This includes all animals apart from the subphylum Vertebrata. Familiar examples of invertebrates include insects; crabs, lobsters and their kin; snails, clams, octopuses and their kin; starfish, sea-urchins and their kin; and worms. The Neogene is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. The Neogene is sub-divided into two epochs, the earlier Miocene and the later Pliocene. Some geologists assert that the Neogene cannot be clearly delineated from the modern geological period, the Quaternary. Iranotherium ("Beast of Iran") was a large elasmothere rhinoceros, as big as a modern white rhino, found in the Middle East and Central Asia. It was a precursor of the related "Sinotherium", and may have been ultimately outcompeted by its descendant.
  Males were larger than the females and had more developed muscle scars on the zygomatic arch. Pakistan (or ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a federal parliamentary republic in South Asia on crossroads of Central Asia and Western Asia. It is the sixth-most populous country with a population exceeding 200 million people. It is the 36th largest country in the world in terms of area with an area covering . Pakistan has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Iran to the southwest and China in the far northeast respectively. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, and also shares a maritime border with Oman. Sinotherium ( `` Chinese Beast '' ) was a genus of single - horned rhinoceri of the late Miocene and Pliocene . It was ancestral to Elasmotherium , and its fossils have been found in 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 . Its synonym , `` Paraelasmotherium , '' is often used to refer to the Miocene specimens . Nagorno-Karabakh, officially the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR; "Lernayin Gharabaghi Hanrapetut'yun"), Artsakh Republic or Republic of Artsakh ("Arts'akhi Hanrapetut'yun"), is an unrecognised republic in the South Caucasus. The region is considered by the UN to be part of Azerbaijan, but is under the control of ethnic Armenian separatists. The NKR controls most of the territory of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast and some of the surrounding area, giving it a border with Armenia to the west, Iran to the south, and the uncontested territory of Azerbaijan to the north and east. A rhinoceros (meaning "nose horn"), often abbreviated to rhino, is one of any five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae, as well as any of the numerous extinct species. Two of these extant species are native to Africa and three to Southern Asia. A sovereign state is, in international law, a nonphysical juridical entity that is represented by one centralised government that has sovereignty over a geographic area. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined territory, one government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood that a sovereign state is neither dependent on nor subjected to any other power or state.
candidates: area bulgaria delta idea insects marmara mya neogene rhinoceros vertebrata
answer: rhinoceros