Mexico City: The rhinoceros fossils kept in a museum in western Mexico belonged to an ancient rhino species called Teleoceras hicksi that lived more than four million years ago, scientists have said.
The fossils were found in the Jalisco state in the 1960s and preserved at the Regional Paleontology Museum in the state capital Guadalajara.
"When we learned that nobody had studied the fossils, we took the initiative and today we're describing for the first time a species that had been identified only in the US, lead researcher Ruben Guzman Gutierrez told EFE Thursday.
Remains of the species had been found to date in Nebraska, Colorado and Texas in the US, but never in Mexico, until these fossils were located in Jalisco's Tecolotlan region.
Guzman, chairman of the Paleontology Department at the Tourism Secretariat for Aguascalientes state in central Mexico, said the fossils were found in the late 1960s in Tecolotlan.
In the 1970s, the fossils were displayed for the public "without any type of designation pertaining to the species". Now it has been determined to what species the fossilised bones belong, an official of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said.
"Teleoceras hicksi had amphibian habits. It lived in areas with a humid tropical climate and ate grass," Guzman said.
The animal was of medium size and had much smaller horns on its snout compared to the rhinoceros species today.
"The investigation was done so many years after (finding the fossils) because there was no funding and not enough paleontologists, and we're sure that there's still much to discover (about the species)," Guzman said.
IANS
First Published: Sunday, November 15, 2009, 13:11