The Indian Rhinoceros or the Asian One-horned Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) is a large mammal found in Nepal, Bhutan, and in Assam, India. It is confined to the tall grasslands and forests in the foothills of the Himalayas. The Indian Rhinoceros can run at speeds of up to 25 mph (40 km/h) for short periods of time and is also an excellent swimmer. It has an excellent sense of hearing and smell and relatively poor eyesight. The Indian Rhinoceros was the first rhinoceros known to Europeans. Rhinoceros from the Greek, rhino meaning nose and ceros meaning horn. The Indian Rhinoceros is monotypic, meaning there are no distinct subspecies. Rhinoceros unicornis was the type species for the rhinoceros family, first classified by Carolus Linnaeus in 1758. Ancestral rhinoceroses first diverged from other Perissodactyls in the Early Eocene. Mitochondrial DNA comparison suggests that the ancestors of modern rhinos split from the ancestors of Equidae around 50 million years ago. The extant family, the Rhinocerotidae, first appeared in the Late Eocene in Eurasia, and the ancestors of the extant rhino species dispersed from Asia beginning in the Miocene. Fossils of Rhinoceros unicornis appear in the Middle Pleistocene. In the Pleistocene, the Rhinoceros genus ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South Asia, with specimens located on Sri Lanka. This photograph is part of the Imagine Images Collection, hosted by dreamstime.
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