Dispersal of the rhinoceros 22.10.2019.

Compared to the present day, the dispersal of rhinos (the Rhinocerotidae family) varied throughout the geological past.

Rhinos first appeared in Asia. During the Cenozoic, rhinos spread throughout Europe, Africa and North America. The Neogene saw the greatest range of their dispersal which began to decline dramatically after that. Today, rhinos inhabit only parts of Africa and Asia. Despite the large number of species of rhinoceros occurring from the Oligocene (30 million years ago), today there are only five extant species which are also critically endangered and at the verge of extinction: the white rhinoceros (Cerathoterium simum) and the black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) in Africa, the Javan rhinoceros (Rhinocerus sondaicus), the Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) and the Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) in Asia.