Elasmotheriinae

Elasmotheriinae is an extinct subfamily of true rhinoceroses (Rhinocerotidae) that roamed across Afro-Eurasia and possibly North America from the Early Miocene (or possibly as early as the Eocene, depending on what taxa are included) to the Late Pleistocene. It is best known from the youngest member of the group, Elasmotherium, one of the largest true rhinoceroses, which survived until at least 39,000 years ago in eastern Europe and Central Asia.

== Taxonomy and evolution == When Elasmotherium was first described from fragmentary remains in 1808 by Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim, there was much debate about its affinities, with some authors even proposing that it represented a kind of marine mammal. The first author to recognise that it represented a kind of rhinoceros was Johann Jakob Kaup in 1840-41. The subfamily was first erected as the group Elasmotherina by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1845, who agreed with Kaup's view that Elasmotherium was a rhinoceros. Following the finding of a complete skull of Elasmotherium which was described by Johann Friedrich von Brandt in 1877, the rhinoceros affinities of Elasmotherium were widely accepted. It wasn't until the early 20th century that other genera of elasmotheriines would be described or previously described species be recognised as belonging to the group. Historically, the subfamily has sometimes been treated as a separate family from Rhinocerotidae, as Elasmotheriidae (Kretzoi, 1943), or has been treated as the tribe Elasmotheriini within the subfamily Rhinocerotinae (e.g. Heissig 1973, 1989, 1999, and Fortelius & Heissig, 1989 and still adopted by some modern authors e.g.), the subtribe Elasomotheriina within the tribe Rhinocerotini (Prothero & Schoch, 1989 and Cerdeño 1995) or even the infratribe Elasmotherii within the subtribe Rhinocerotina (McKenna & Bell, 1997) The subfamily Iranotheriinae or subtribe Iranotheriina was also sometimes historically considered separate from Elasmotheriinae (or its various equivalents), following Kretzoi, 1943.