Aceratheriinae

Aceratheriinae
Temporal range:
Skeleton of Aceratherium (Aceratheriini)
Skeleton of Plesiaceratherium gracile (basal Aceratheriinae)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Rhinocerotidae
Subfamily: Aceratheriinae
Dollo, 1885
Genera

See Taxonomy

Aceratheriinae (from Ancient Greek ἀ- (á-), meaning "-less", κέρας (kéras), meaning "horn", and θηρίον (theríon), meaning "beast") is an extinct subfamily of true rhinoceroses (Rhinocerotidae) that ranged across Eurasia, Africa and North America from the Oligocene to the beginning of the Pliocene. Members of the group generally lacked horns, though some members of the family may have borne small horns.

The subfamily had historically been used as a wastebasket taxon for all hornless rhinocerotids, though it is now recognised that there are hornless non-aceratheriine rhinocerotids. Aceratheriinae as presently defined includes at least one tribe, Aceratheriini. It is disputed whether members of the tribe Teleoceratini also belong in Aceratheriinae or if they instead represent a distinct separate group of rhinoceroses.