<i>Brachypotherium perimense</i> (Perissodactyla, Rhinocerotidae) from the Miocene of Nakhon Ratchasima, Northeastern Thailand, with comments on fossil records of <i>Brachypotherium</i>

The cranio-dental and postcranial remains of the Rhinocerotidae collected from the sand pit no. 8 at Nakhon Ratchasima in northeastern Thailand, are described in this study. The remains show cheek teeth that tend to have flattened buccal walls, bucco-lingually broad molariform premolars with short crochet, and brachypodal limb bones, suggesting that these remains belong to genus <i>Brachypotherium</i>. Compared with Afro-Eurasian <i>Brachypotherium</i>, the remains are identified as a South Asian species, <i>Brachypotherium perimense</i>. The result reveals that <i>B. perimense</i> was distributed in Southeast Asia during the Late Miocene. The fossil records of <i>Brachypotherium</i> in Afro-Eurasia show that the genus <i>Brachypotherium</i> was already present in the Indian Subcontinent by the earliest Miocene. This genus then became widely distributed and diversified in Afro-Eurasia during the late Early Miocene and Middle Miocene. Its diversity seems to have decreased before it became extinct by the end of the Miocene, with only the African species, <i>B. lewisi</i>, surviving.