''Trogontherium'' 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 living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of giant
beaver
Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers a ...
s, ranging from the Late Pliocene to the Late Pleistocene. It is not closely related to the North American giant beavers of the genus ''
Castoroides
''Castoroides'' (Latin: "beaver" (castor), "like" (oides)), or giant beaver, is an extinct genus of enormous, bear-sized beavers that lived in North America during the Pleistocene. Two species are currently recognized, ''C. dilophidus'' in the S ...
''. Fossils of ''Trogontherium'' have been found in
Middle Pleistocene
The Chibanian, widely known by its previous designation of Middle Pleistocene, is an age in the international geologic timescale or a stage in chronostratigraphy, being a division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. Th ...
formations of England, mainland
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
,
Yunnan, China
Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders th ...
, and
Siberia, Russia.
[The Paleobiology Database ''Trogontherium'' entry](_blank)
accessed on 7 April 2010 The last record of the taxon is from the Late Pleistocene of
Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
near
Harbin
Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest c ...
, around 40,000 years old. Its disappearance might be related to the arrival of hunter gatherers into the region.
See also
* ''
Castoroides
''Castoroides'' (Latin: "beaver" (castor), "like" (oides)), or giant beaver, is an extinct genus of enormous, bear-sized beavers that lived in North America during the Pleistocene. Two species are currently recognized, ''C. dilophidus'' in the S ...
''
References
Prehistoric beavers
Pleistocene rodents
Pleistocene genus extinctions
Pleistocene mammals of Europe
Pleistocene mammals of Asia
Prehistoric rodent genera
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