SPANISH JOURNAL OF PALAEONTOLOGY Artistic reconstruction of the appearance of Prosantorhinus Heissig, 1974, the teleoceratine rhinoceros from the Middle Miocene of Somosaguas Marco ANSÓN1,2* & Manuel HERNÁNDEZ FERNÁNDEZ2,3 1 Grupo de Estudio de la Naturaleza AYM, Facultad de Bellas Artes, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, C/ El Greco 2, 28040 Madrid, Spain; [email protected] 2 Departamento de Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, C/ Antonio Nováis 2, 28040 Madrid, Spain; [email protected] 3 Departamento de Cambio Medioambiental, Instituto de Geociencias (UCM, CSIC), C/ Antonio Nováis 2, 28040 Madrid, Spain * Corresponding author Ansón, M. & Hernández Fernández, M. 2013. Artistic reconstruction of the appearance of Prosantorhinus Heissig, 1974, the teleoceratine rhinoceros from the Middle Miocene of Somosaguas. [Reconstrucción artística de la apariencia de Prosantorhinus Heissig, 1974, el rinoceronte teleoceratino del Mioceno medio de Somosaguas]. Spanish Journal of Palaeontology, 28 (1), 43-54. Manuscript received 25 April 2012 © Sociedad Española de Paleontología ISSN 2255-0550 Manuscript accepted 25 September 2012 ABSTRACT RESUMEN We show the methodology used to perform the artistic Mostramos la metodología usada para realizar la palaeoreconstruction of the teleoceratine rhinoceros paleoreconstrucción artística del rinoceronte teleoceratino Prosantorhinus, which is found in the middle Miocene Prosantorhinus, el cual se encuentra en el yacimiento del fossil site of Somosaguas-Norte (Pozuelo de Alarcón, middle Mioceno medio de Somosaguas-Norte (Pozuelo de Alarcón, Aragonian). Successive phases within this work involved Aragoniese medio). Las fases sucesivas dentro de este (1) the interpretation of the fossils in comparative anatomy trabajo implicaron (1) la interpretación de los fósiles en terms; (2) the use of modern analogues, considering the términos de anatomía comparada; (2) el uso de análogos systematic relationships among the extinct species and their modernos, considerando las relaciones sistemáticas entre la extant relatives, which allows us to infer the condition of especie extinta y sus parientes actuales, lo cual nos permitió unpreserved attributes such as soft tissues; and (3) addition inferir la condición de los atributos no preservados tales of palaeoecological information in order to establish the como tejidos blandos; y (3) la inclusión de información palaeoenvironmental framework of the species. Our fi nished paleoecológica con la fi nalidad de establecer el contexto work shows a plausible reconstruction of the inferred life paleoambiental de la especie. El resultado fi nal muestra una appearance of Prosantorhinus. reconstrucción plausible de la apariencia en vida inferida para Prosantorhinus. Keywords: Comparative anatomy, Iberian Peninsula, Mammalia, paleoart, Rhinocerotidae. Palabras clave: Anatomía comparada, Península Ibérica, Mammalia, paleoarte, Rhinocerotidae. https://doi.org/10.7203/sjp.28.1.17815 44 ANSÓN & HERNÁNDEZ FERNÁNDEZ 1. INTRODUCTION reconstruction of life appearance of Prosantorhinus can be useful as a tool for the public recognition of such The Aragonian (middle Miocene) vertebrate fossil sites at evolutionary distinctiveness, from direct comparison with the Somosaguas Campus (Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid) the popular and iconic modern rhinoceros. of the Complutensian University of Madrid have yielded When proceeding with the reconstruction of an extinct thousands of fossils. Continuous research on these sites animal we should follow a sequential work of various has allowed paying special attention to approaches related steps, from the inner anatomy of the animal to its surface to public awareness in palaeontology. Particularly, the (as summarized in Antón & Sánchez, 2004). For the Somosaguas Paleontology Project is especially interested reconstruction of the unpreserved attributes we employed in the transference of research results on the fauna and the Extant Phylogenetic Bracket approach (Witmer, 1995); environments from central Spain around 14 Ma to the this method uses the closest extant relatives to the fossil general public. Therefore, it has made a strong outreach taxon studied and an additionally basal group as control. activity (Fesharaki et al., 2012), teaching palaeontology to By this method we can take phylogenetic inference of students of different fi elds (Benítez-López et al., 2009) and attributes based on the distribution of knows features spreading the concepts of this discipline to public of all in related taxa (Appendix 1). We have developed the ages (Castilla et al., 2006), including people with different reconstruction of Prosantorhinus in four different phases, handicaps, in a fi eld called “Social palaeontology” (Torices from osteological reconstruction, trough analysis of the et al., 2004). For this purpose it is important to summarize muscular system and external appearance interpretation, research results in order to generate accessible reference to the inclusion of the animal in its palaeoenvironmental images for the general public. In this sense images of the framework. extinct species of the fossil sites can be used as iconic references. The macrovertebrate fauna from Somosaguas-Norte site 2. OSTEOLOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION includes the rhinoceros Prosantorhinus douvillei, whose remains are the fi rst report of this genus in the Madrid We began our work using the available fossil remains basin (Hernández Fernández et al., 2006). Prosantorhinus of Prosantorhinus from Somosaguas-Norte as starting is a member of the subtribe Teleoceratina. These distinctive point (Hernández Fernández et al., 2006). These include animals conform a very derived group recognized by a left hemimandible fragment, which preserves the molar their short limbs with robust and short metapodials and series m1-m3, and has lost the coronoid process and the their barrel-shaped thorax, which gives them a hippo-like symphyseal region (SOMN-300). Prosantorhinus has appearance in some cases. This abundant and widespread brachyodont dentition, and a robust jaw. There is also tribe is included in the subfamily Rhinocerotinae (Antoine, a right M3 (SOMN-680) and a right second metacarpal 2002). It appeared around 28 Ma, in the middle Oligocene (SOMN-2652), short and robust, which lacks the distal of Europe (Diaceratherium) and fl ourished in the Miocene epiphysis and whose proximal epiphysis is broken of Eurasia (Aprotodon, Prosantorhinus, Brachypotherium) (Hernández Fernández et al., 2006). arriving North America and Africa, where they got extinct The fi rst step of our work is to assemble the complete around 2 Ma (Geraads, 2010). skeleton of the species, for which we searched for Prosantorhinus was defi ned by Heissig (1974), who information from other fossil sites with presence of invalided the previously defined genus Brachypodella Prosantorhinus (Cerdeño, 1996) as well as data from (Heissig, 1972). This genus is fi rst known from the latest other related taxa as Brachypotherium, Diaceratherium lower Miocene and became extinct at the end of the and Teleoceras (Prothero, 2005) following the bases of Aragonian. It includes two species, P. germanicus and P. comparative anatomy. douvillei (Heissig, 1972; Prothero et al., 1989; Cerdeño, For the reconstruction of the head, fi rst we considered 1996). The former species was distributed across Germany as reference the fossil SOMN-300. We completed the and France, while the latter one was larger and was present dental series, estimated the position of the symphysis in France, Spain and Portugal. Following Cerdeño (1996), and added the incisors proportionally to the size of the additional unnamed species are known from Buñol (Spain, mandible, taking as reference the data from the incisor Prosantorhinus sp. A) and Grive-Saint-Alvan (France, of P. germanicus from Sandelzhausen (Cerdeño, 1996). Prosantorhinus sp. B). Our results indicate that the complete jaw should be 45- While Prosantorhinus is a rhinoceros, it was very 48 cm (Fig. 1). different from the modern species of this group. The Once the restoration of the jaw was finished, we five living rhinoceroses are included in the subscribe proceed to estimate the shape of the skull. Due to lack of Rhinocerotina, which have a distinctive evolutionary material, this work relied on the adaptation of the cranial history separated from Teleoceratina at least since the anatomy of Prosantorhinus germanicus according to the Oligocene (Tougard et al., 2001). This means that the proportions of the jaw, taking as a reference the cranial ARTISTIC RECONSTRUCTION OF THE APPEARANCE OF PROSANTORHINUS HEISSIG, 1974... 45 Figure 1. Restoration of the complete jaw SOMN-300 (the grey coloured part is the original fossil) from Somosaguas (artwork by M. Ansón). descriptions from Cerdeño (1996) and Prothero et al. 3. MUSCLES AND BODY SHAPE (1989) and photographies of a skull from Sandelzhausen in exhibition. We conducted a skull scaled by adjusting After the skeleton was reconstructed and articulated, the the proportions by a slight neurocranium elongation. The next step in the reconstruction of the animal was the features of the skull show a thin, long and roughened nasal interpretation of the muscle attachment points in order to extremity. This rugged tip could be the basis of one or represent the muscles and deduce general body shape and perhaps two small horns (Cerdeño, 1996; Heissig, 1999). volume. As references for tissue and muscle distribution The dorsal profi le is slightly concave,