Rhinoceroses were well-distributed across Southern Europe during the Early Pleistocene with abundant remains, but they are rather scarce in the Greek record and even less studied from a systematic point of view. In this article, we study a total of 124 specimens from eight fossil-bearing Lower Pleistocene localities of Northern Greece, spanning from ~ 2.3 to ~ 1.2 Ma. The localities of Tsiotra Vryssi and Krimni in the Mygdonia...

The fossiliferous sites of Samos Island are of major importance amidst the numerous Turolian localities of Greece, partly because it is the type locality of two hornless rhinocerotids, Chilotherium schlosseri and Eochilotherium samium . For more than a century, the island has been excavated by Greek and international teams, leading to a dispersal of fossils in a plethora of museums around the World. In the present work, the en...

Hippopotamus antiquus is a well-documented species within the Hippopotamidae family, with evidence of its presence in almost all Europe during the Pleistocene. Despite its abundance in the fossiliferous record, there is still much debate surrounding the first and last appearance data of this taxon, as well as its evolutionary trend. In this work we present a well-preserved mandible recovered from Mosbach (Germany) referred to...

Excavation campaigns conducted at the Pécel‐Kis hársas site (Hungary) between 2014 and 2017 yielded the remains of a mature female woolly rhinoceros ( Coelodonta antiquitatis ) and six lithic artefacts. Radiocarbon dating confirmed that the rhinoceros died ca. 20.4k cal a bp , at the very end of the Last Glacial Maximum and, considering the position of the artefacts when found, it was probably killed by Epigravettian hunters....

The origin and evolution of endemic species characterizing the Oreopithecus -faunal assemblages of the Tusco-Sardinian archipelago remain a matter of debate. An emblematic case is the enigmatic giraffid Umbrotherium azzarolii , represented by a single specimen from the type locality of Casteani (Tuscany) and by several isolated teeth and fragmentary mandibles from the locality of Fiume Santo (Sardinia). An exhaustive diagnosis...

The phylogenetic relationships within Eurasian Quaternary rhinoceroses is reassessed for the first time by means of Bayesian analysis. The results show Stephanorhinus as a monophyletic clade, with Pliorhinus as a sister taxon and Coelodonta as their closest relative. A new scenario on the origin, evolution and paleobiogeography of Quaternary rhinoceroses is therefore provided. Stephanorhinus originated in the Mediterranean Bas...

A fragmentary mandible from the early Pliocene of the Vera Basin is here investigated to clarify its taxonomic position. The studied specimen is here assigned to Pliorhinus megarhinus , documented in Europe from the latest Miocene to the mid-Pliocene. The morphometrical comparison reveals that this taxon is larger than Stephanorhinus etruscus and S. jeanvireti but overlaps with Dihoplus schleiermacheri . P. megarhinus and D. s...