Ceratotherium neumayri
Introduction '''''Ceratotherium neumayri''''' is a fossil species of rhinoceros from the Late Miocene (Vallesian-Turolian) of the Balkans and Western Asia, with remains known from Greece, Bulgaria, Iran, and Anatolia in Turkey.
Taxonomy The species was originally described in 1900 by Henry Fairfield Osborn as the species ''Atelodus neumayri''. The species is closely related to both the living African black rhinoceros (''Diceros bicornis'') and white rhinoceros (''Ceratotherium simum'') as part of the tribe Dicerotini (also spelled Diceroti) or subtribe Dicerotina.'''' Its genus placement is disputed, with it historically having been placed in both the genera ''Ceratotherium'' and ''Diceros''. While some authors have suggested the species to be ancestor of both the white rhinoceros and black rhinoceros, other authors have suggested that it represents a distinct early offshoot that is not ancestral to these species. A 2022 study placed the species in the separate monotypic genus '''''Miodiceros'''.''
Description The species was a large sized rhinceros, and had two horns, a nasal and a frontal horn. The nasal septum was not ossified.''''
Ecology Dental microwear analysis suggests that the species was a mixed feeder that engaged in both grazing and browsing.
Discoveries Fossils of the species have been found in the Balkans, including Bulgaria and Greece'''',as well as Anatolia in Turkey, and in northern Iran and the southern Caucasus in Western Asia.'''' A well-preserved sample fossil of the species, which is believed to have died of high temperatures during a volcanic eruption, has been found in Gülşehir, Turkey in 2012.Some authors have suggested that the species was also present in Africa, based on Late Miocene remains found in Tunisia originally attributed to ''C. douariense.''
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