Explore this animal in Size of Extinct Animals ↗
298 / Cenozoic
Teleoceras
Teleoceras major
Short legs and a barrel body gave this grazing rhinoceros a hippo-like outline.
View original image · 1536 × 1024- Time range
- About 12–5 million years ago
- Final stage
- Early Pliocene
- Geographic range
- Floodplain grasslands and lakeshores · North America
01 / DEFINITION & ECOLOGY
What was Teleoceras?
Teleoceras (Teleoceras major) was an extinct organism known from About 12–5 million years ago, with a range in Floodplain grasslands and lakeshores · North America.
Life and ecology
Teleoceras fed on grasses around rivers and lakes, often gathering in groups and carrying a small nasal horn.
02 / DISAPPEARANCE
Why did Teleoceras disappear?
Pliocene changes in climate, vegetation and herbivore communities are the likely setting; a specific cause for the genus is not established.
03 / EVIDENCE
How do scientists know about Teleoceras?
Ashfall Fossil Beds preserve herds, calves and skeletons; teeth and isotopes record grazing.
04 / SOURCES & FURTHER READING
Check the source record
Use the scientific name to compare taxonomy, occurrence records and the fossil record. Database coverage and classifications may differ.
05 / REVISION HISTORY
How has this record changed?
- Rewrote an extinction cause that presented environmental or faunal turnover as established; it is now given as context the record does not prove.
- Verified authoritative entity sources and added three responsive reconstruction sizes.
- Initial bilingual species record published.
06 / CORRECTIONS & ADDITIONS