Revision of fossil rhinoceroses from the Miocene Mizunami

Abstract. A reinvestigation of Chilotherium from the Mizunami Group revealed that they do not belong to the genus and comprise two species, Brachypotherium? pugnator and Plesiaceratherium sp. It was found that B.? pugnator is more closely related to the Early Miocene Asian Brachypotherium (B. fatehjangense and B. shanwangensis) than to other species; this is inferred on the basis of the dental characteristics of strongly constricted protocones and prominent antecrochets in upper molars. Plesiaceratherium sp. resembles Pl. gracile rather than other European species in terms of the weak rugosities on the labial walls of the P2−3. The assemblage of rhinoceros fossils of the Mizunami Group is very similar to that of the Early Miocene Shanwang Fauna in China