''Floridaceras'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Rhinocerotidae A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...

(rhinoceros) of the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

epoch (early

Hemingfordian The Hemingfordian on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA), typically set from 20,600,000 to 16,300,000 years BP. It is usually considered to overlap the lates ...

), endemic to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, living from around ~20.6–16.3 Ma, existing for approximately .

Taxonomy

''Floridaceras'' was named by Wood (1964). Its type is ''Floridaceras whitei''. It was assigned to

by Wood (1964) and Carroll (1988); and to

Aceratheriinae Aceratheriinae is an extinct subfamily of rhinoceros endemic to Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America, from the Oligocene through the Pliocene. It lived from 33.9 to 3.4 mya, existing for approximately . Taxonomy Aceratheriinae was named b ...

by Prothero (1998).

Fossil distribution

The only site known is the

Thomas Farm Site The Thomas Farm site is an Early Miocene, Hemingfordian assemblage of vertebrate fossils located in Gilchrist County, northern Florida. The Thomas Farm site is one of the richest terrestrial deposits of Miocene vertebrates in the 18 Ma range fo ...

Gilchrist County, Florida Gilchrist County is a county located in the north central part of the U.S. state of Florida. Organized in 1925 from the western part of Alachua, it is the last county to be formed in the state. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,86 ...

, ~20.6—16.3 Ma.

Description

''Floridaceras'' was of unusually large size for a rhinoceros of the Hemingfordian. It would have been roughly comparable to a

black rhinoceros The black rhinoceros, black rhino or hook-lipped rhinoceros (''Diceros bicornis'') is a species of rhinoceros, native to eastern and southern Africa including Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania ...

in size, much larger than contemporaries such as the ''

Menoceras ''Menoceras'' ("Crescent Horns") is a genus of extinct, small rhinoceros endemic to most of southern North America and ranged as far south as Panama during the early Miocene epoch. It lived from around 30.7—19.7 Ma, existing for approximately ...

''. Like many primitive Aceratheriines, it has no horn, relatively long limbs and brachydont dentition (indicating it was a browser).

Sources

Miocene rhinoceroses Miocene mammals of North America Pliocene rhinoceroses Fossil taxa described in 1964 {{paleo-oddtoedungulate-stub