''Victoriaceros'' is an
extinct 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
elasmotheriine
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
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 ...
known from the
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), 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 mea ...
of
Maboko Island
Maboko Island is a small island lying in the Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria, in Nyanza Province of western Kenya. It is about 1.8 km long by 1 km wide. It is an important Middle Miocene paleontological site with fossiliferous deposits that were di ...
,
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
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.
Discovery
''Victoriaceros'' is known from the
holotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...
, an almost perfectly preserved
skull
The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...
, which characterized mainly by the large
nasal horn, an orbit located very anteriorly and with a prominent border, and very broad zygomatic arches. Numerous
limb bones, probably belonging to only a few individuals, are also known. Specimens of ''Victoriaceros'' were collected in the middle Miocene site of
Maboko
Maboko Island is a small island lying in the Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria, in Nyanza Province of western Kenya. It is about 1.8 km long by 1 km wide. It is an important Middle Miocene paleontological site with fossiliferous deposits that were d ...
located in
Lake Victoria in Kenya, from the
Maboko beds, dating to about 15
million years ago
The abbreviation Myr, "million years", is a unit of a quantity of (i.e. ) years, or 31.556926 teraseconds.
Usage
Myr (million years) is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used with Mya (million years ago) ...
. ''Victoriaceros'' represents the most common taxon in the Maboko beds, which has yielded one of the best collections of rhinoceroses in Africa. Teeth and skull morphology suggest that ''Victoriaceros'' belongs to subfamily
Elasmotheriinae, whose might be not
monophyletic.
[ A second species, ''Victoriaceros hooijeri'', was named in 2016 from the Kisiringi locality in Western Kenia.]
Etymology
''Victoriaceros'' was first named by Denis Geraads, Monte McCrossin and Brenda Benefit in 2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...
and the type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...
is ''Victoriaceros kenyensis''. The generic name is derived from the name of Lake Victoria, and from Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
''keras'' meaning "horn"Kenya
)
, national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
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, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
...
.[
]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7927175
Fossil taxa described in 2012
Miocene mammals of Africa
Miocene rhinoceroses