''Rhinoceros'' is a

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 ...

comprising one-horned rhinoceroses. This

scientific name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bo ...

was proposed by Swedish

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are give ...

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

in 1758. The genus contains two species, the

Indian rhinoceros } The Indian rhinoceros (''Rhinoceros unicornis''), also called the Indian rhino, greater one-horned rhinoceros or great Indian rhinoceros, is a rhinoceros species native to the Indian subcontinent. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red Li ...

(''Rhinoceros unicornis'') and the

Javan rhinoceros The Javan rhinoceros (''Rhinoceros sondaicus''), also known as the Javan rhino, Sunda rhinoceros or lesser one-horned rhinoceros, is a very rare member of the family Rhinocerotidae and one of five extant rhinoceroses. It belongs to the same ge ...

(''Rhinoceros sondaicus''). Although both members are threatened, the Javan rhinoceros is one of the most endangered large

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur ...

s in the world with only 60 individuals surviving in

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

(

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

). The word 'rhinoceros' is of Greek origin meaning "nose-horn".

Classification

The genus ''Rhinoceros'' comprises: *

(''R. unicornis'') *

(''R. sondaicus'') *†'' R. fusuiensis'' *†'' R. sivalensis'' *†'' R. hemitoxhus'' *†'' R. leptorhinus'' *†'' R. philippinensis'' described by von Koenigswald in 1956 were fossil remains found in

Cagayan Cagayan ( ), officially the Province of Cagayan ( ilo, Probinsia ti Cagayan; ibg, Provinsiya na Cagayan; itv, Provinsiya ya Cagayan; fil, Lalawigan ng Cagayan), is a province in the Philippines located in the Cagayan Valley region, coverin ...

province of the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. It was transferred to the genus ''

Nesorhinus ''Nesorhinus'' is a genus of rhinocerotid perissodactyl from the Pleistocene of Asia. It contains two species, '' Nesorhinus philippinensis'' from Luzon, Philippines and ''Nesorhinus hayasakai'' (formerly ''Rhinoceros sinensis hayasakai'') from ...

'' in 2021. *†'' R. platyrhinus'' Falconer and Cautley 1847 syn '' Punjabitherium'' Khan (1971) Upper Siwaliks, Early Pleistocene to early Middle Pleistocene, India. Largest species in the genus *†'' R. sinensis''

wastebasket taxon Wastebasket taxon (also called a wastebin taxon, dustbin taxon or catch-all taxon) is a term used by some taxonomists to refer to a taxon that has the sole purpose of classifying organisms that do not fit anywhere else. They are typically defined ...

used to refer to rhinoceros material from the Pleistocene of China, various specimens belong to other ''Rhinoceros'' species, ''

Dicerorhinus ''Dicerorhinus'' (Greek: "two" (dio), "horn" (keratos), "nose" (rhinos)) is a genus of the family Rhinocerotidae, consisting of a single extant species, the two-horned Sumatran rhinoceros (''D. sumatrensis''), and several extinct species. The ...

'' and ''

Stephanorhinus ''Stephanorhinus'' is an extinct genus of two-horned rhinoceros native to Eurasia and North Africa that lived during the Pliocene to Late Pleistocene. Species of ''Stephanorhinus'' were the predominant and often only species of rhinoceros in much ...

.''

Etymology

The genus name ''Rhinoceros'' is a combination of the

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 pe ...

words ῥίς (ris) meaning 'nose' and κέρας (keras) meaning 'horn of an animal'.

References

External links

Rhinoceroses Mammal genera Extant Miocene first appearances Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{oddtoedungulate-stub