Thursday, December 19, 2024

Saber-Tooth Rhino Ish

I hope you'll forgive me for calling it a Rhino. It has no relation to the modern rhino, as far as I know. It just looks a bit like one, and there aren't any listed living relatives. There isn't actually that much known about this critter overall. Part of the reason for that is that they got, unintentionally, involved in the Bone Wars, which is a rather disappointing bit of human history that you can look up later. Short version, a few archeologists in the late 1800's were assholes who wanted to be the best, so they may have destroyed sites they were done with or even stolen each other's bones, and they definitely rushed their science about and caused some animals to get named a few times. It messed up a lot of things that had to get sorted out later. 

So, Saber Toothed Not-Rhino. Also known as Uintatherium anceps, or just Uintatherium. It's the only one in it's family that I know of, though there is a possible second that I couldn't get much information on and is in China, and an ancestor that might be part of their group. It was originally discovered in Wyoming and Utah, and got it's name from nearby mountains. It lived 50-30 million years ago, give or take, in the Eocene Era. 

They have a really thick skull, which is why it survived so well, with a tiny space for a brain, and 6 large bumps on top that might have been used to battle each other for territory or mates or something. The teeth aren't for attacking though, and possibly might have been used as something similar to a rake to gather plants from the water or bushes and keep it near their mouths. 


Doesn't it look weird? That's just the skull, so you can understand why I'm interested. This picture was taken from the Smithsonian link. The one below is from Everything Dinosaur, also in the links. 

Obviously, this is just what someone thinks it might have looked like. No one knows. It's mighty interesting though, in'nt it? If you want to know more, you can use the links below or look it up yourself. 

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