Dzungariotherium

Dzungariotherium is a genus of paraceratheriid, an extinct group of large, hornless rhinocerotoids, which lived during the middle and late Oligocene of northwest China. The type species D. orgosense was described in 1973 based on fossils—mainly teeth—from Dzungaria in Xinjiang, northwest China.^[1]

Dzungariotherium Temporal range: Oligocene, 34–23 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Skull of D. orgosense, Tianjin Natural History Museum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Perissodactyla
Family:	†Paraceratheriidae
Genus:	†Dzungariotherium Chiu, 1973
Type species
†Dzungariotherium orgosense Chiu, 1973
Species
†D. orgosense Chiu, 1973 †D. tienshanense (Chiu, 1962) †D. turfanense Xu & Wang, 1978
Synonyms
†Dzungariotherium turfanensis Xu & Wang, 1978 †Paraceratherium lipidus Xu & Wang, 1978 †P. lepidum Xu & Wang, 1978 †P. tienshanensis Chiu, 1962 †P. orgosensis (Chiu, 1973)

Skeletal mount (left) of Paraceratherium lepdium, which is possibly a synonym of D. turfanense, Turpan Museum

Description

Tooth, Paleozoological Museum of China

The teeth of D. orgosense (from which that species is mainly known) are 25 percent larger than those of Paraceratherium transouralicum, indicating that it was one of the largest known paraceratheriids,^[2] but the teeth and skull were proportionally large compared to the body, making it smaller overall.^[3] Skull length range is 126-143 cm. The mass of a D. sp specimen was estimated to be ~ 20.6 metric tons. ^[4]

Paraceratherium bugtiense and D. orgosense share features such as relatively slender maxillae and premaxillae, shallow skull roofs, mastoid-paroccipital processes that are relatively thin and placed back on the skull, a lambdoid crest, which extends less back, and an occipital condyle with a horizontal orientation. D. orgosense is distinguished from Paraceratherium species by the larger size of its teeth, and distinct crochets of its molars.^[5]