Cladistic Analysis of the Family

A cladistic analysis ofthe family Rhinocerotidae encompassing 45 taxa and 72 characters (referred to craniomandibular [20], dental [26], and post-cranial [26] features), and using Hyrachyus and two subfamilies of Hyracodontidae as outgroups, discovered 104 equally parsimonious cladograms. When the analysis was run with Hyrachyus as the only outgroup (removing the hyracodontid sub-families), only six equally parsimonious trees were discovered. The discovered trees of the two anal-yses are compared, which suggests a reinterpre-tation ofthe phylogenetic relationships within the Rhinocerotidae. The subfamilies Diceratheriinae and Menoceratinae are not supported, as the gen-era included within them appear as a paraphyletic group. Phylogenies of the subfamilies Rhinocer-otinae and Aceratheriinae are questioned. Within the former, the elasmotheriines are separated into two groups: a new subtribe, Iranotheriina, is pro-posed, while Elasmotherium and Ninxiatherium appear more closely related to Stephanorhinus and Coelodonta. The content of the subtribe Rhino-cerotina is revised. The tribe Teleoceratini is re-moved from the Rhinocerotinae and included within the subfamily Aceratheriinae. A new ac-eratherine tribe, Alicornopini, is proposed for Al-icornops, Peraceras, and Chilotheridium. The analysis indirectly supports some synonymies pre-viously suggested, such as "Begertherium " = His-panotherium, and "Dicerorhinus " schleiermacheri = Lartetotherium schleiermacheri