Indian rhinoceros - online puzzles

The Indian rhinoceros ( Rhinoceros unicornis), also called the greater one-horned rhinoceros and great Indian rhinoceros, is a rhinoceros native to the Indian subcontinent. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, as populations are fragmented and restricted to less than 20,000 km2 (7,700 sq mi). Moreover, the extent and quality of the rhino's most important habitat, alluvial grassland and riverine forest, is considered to be in decline due to human and livestock encroachment. As of 2008, a total of 2,575 mature individuals were estimated to live in the wild.The Indian rhinoceros once ranged throughout the entire stretch of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, but excessive hunting and agricultural development reduced their range drastically to 11 sites in northern India and southern Nepal. In the early 1990s, between 1,870 and 1,895 rhinos were estimated to have been alive.

Taxonomy

In 1758, Carl Linnaeus first described a rhinoceros with one horn under the name Rhinoceros unicornis. As type locality, he indicated Africa and India.The one-horned rhinoceros is monotypic. Several specimens were described since the end of the 18th century under different scientific names, which are all considered synonyms of Rhinoceros unicornis today:

R. indicus by Cuvier, 1817

R. asiaticus by Blumenbach, 1830

R. stenocephalus by Gray, 1867

R. jamrachi by Sclatter, 1876

R. bengalensis by Kourist, 1970

Etymology

The modern scientific designation Rhinoceros unicornis is adopted from the Greek ῥινόκερως (from ῥίς rhís (nose) and κέρας kéras (horn of an animal )) and Latin ūnus meaning single and cornū meaning horn.

Evolution

Ancestral rhinoceroses first diverged from other perissodactyls in the Early Eocene. Mitochondrial DNA comparison suggests the ancestors of modern rhinos split from the ancestors of Equidae around 50 million years ago.