OBJECT DOSSIER · SMITHSONIAN OPEN ACCESS

Hippopotamus-like rhinoceros — Teleoceras fossiger

SAGE Museum Deep Time scientific dossier

Artist / Creator

Daderot

Date / Period

Miocene — Clarendonian · Miocene, Clarendonian.

Object Type

composite

Medium

unknown_needs_review

About This Object

Geologic period: Miocene — Clarendonian

Age: Miocene, Clarendonian.

Feeding: Herbivorous.

Evidence: The skeleton directly records the animal's unusual proportions. The common 'hippo-like' comparison describes body shape and historical ecological interpretation, not proof it behaved exactly like a modern hippopotamus.

Why it matters: Teleoceras demonstrates that rhinoceros evolution produced short-legged, heavy-bodied forms very unlike living African and Asian rhinos.

Plain Language Identity: A short-legged barrel-bodied rhinoceros from the Miocene.

What You Are Looking At: A composite mount representing Teleoceras fossiger.

Ecosystem: Miocene terrestrial ecosystems of the Great Plains.

Source Urls: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour/current-exhibits/deep-time-virtual-tour-fossil-list; https://www.si.edu/object/teleoceras-fossiger-cope:nmnhpaleobiology_3389708

Formation: Ogallala Formation

Find Location: Kansas, United States

Enrichment Method: SAGE curated research pass; title + scientific name + source scene matched; chronology and taxonomy conflicts retained rather than silently corrected; evidence separated from inference

Scientific name: Teleoceras fossiger

Evidence / representation: comparative_taxon_visual

Why It Is In This SAGE Exhibit

comparative_taxon_visual

After the Dinosaurs: Mammals, Ice Ages and the World We Inherited.

Provenance

Smithsonian Deep Time source scene: Costs and Benefits of Living Large

Visual source institution: Wikimedia Commons

Exhibition History

Included in the SAGE Museum Dinosaurs & Deep Time staging exhibit.

Collection & Credit

Media license: CC0

http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en

Subjects & Themes

Teleoceras fossiger Miocene — Clarendonian composite Costs and Benefits of Living Large After the Dinosaurs

ORIGINAL COLLECTION SOURCE

This object page stays inside SAGE Museum. The Smithsonian link below is provided only as the original scholarly collection record. It opens separately.

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