Reference Base The white rhinoceros [description of Rhinoceros simus cot... |
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Lydekker, R., 1908. The white rhinoceros [description of Rhinoceros simus cottoni]. Field 111 (2878), 1908 February 22: 319
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Location: |
World |
Subject: |
Taxonomy - Taxa |
Species: |
White Rhino |
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Major Powell-Cotton has just presented to the Natural History Museum the skull and horns of a male white rhinoceros killed by him in the Lado District of Equatorial Central Africa. The skull indicates an immature animal, the last upper molar tooth on each side not having yet come into use, while the last premolar has not been replaced by its permanent successor. On contrasting this specimen with skulls of the typical southern race of Rh. simus, I have been surprised (considering the distance separating the haunts of the two animals) to find how comparatively slight are the differences.
The Lado white rhinoceros thus presents an exaggeration of the feature from which the species received its designation of simus ('snub-nosed' or 'blunt-nosed'), and the difference appears sufficiently marked to admit of its being regarded as a separate local race, for which the name of Rhinoceros simus cottoni will be appropriate. Of this race the skull in the Museum will be the Type. The horns of this specimen present no characters by which they can be satisfactorily distinguished from southern examples.
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