Donald R. Prothero’s Rhinoceros Giants: The Paleobiology of Indricotheres examines both the indricotheres themselves as well as the history of their discovery. The story of discovery, early paleontological techniques, and the Indiana Jones-type adventurer-scientists who traveled to the remotest parts of the world in the hopes of finding something spectacular set this book apart from other histories of ancient life written for a popular (i.e.. non-academic) audience. Prothero then describes how political changes in the parts of Asia with the largest indricotheres deposits – from World War II through the socio-political changes during the Cold War – affected international scientific advancement throughout the twentieth century, such that these giant beasts are only now being fully understood.

Having detailed the early paleontology, Prothero describes the new methodologies for chronologizing the fossils, including magnetic stratigraphy and reconciling differing terms and concepts across different schools of thought. Despite most people associating rhinoceroses with their horns, Prothero explains how most fossil rhinoceroses either have no evidence of horns or did not leave behind horns due to being constructed almost entirely of keratin. Thus, paleontologists rely on teeth, in particular molars, which are far more effective at tracing certain evolutionary lineages. From teeth, Prothero moves on to nomenclature and how many different species of Indricotherium were misnamed based on slight taxonomic differences or how paleontologists grouped outliers in as Indricotheres based on other errors.

In addition to summarizing the field of paleobiology, Prothero offers his own reconstruction of this creature that was one of the largest land mammals ever to walk the Earth. Notably, he examines the nasal region, the need for heat regulation among modern mammals, and what their leg and rib proportions suggest about their girth and digestion – ruminant versus hindgut fermenters – to propose a maximum upper limit of 20 tonnes, but more likely in the 10-15 tonne range with large, elephant-like ears for thermoregulation and a slight proboscis or trunk, such as in a tapir (Ch. 7). Prothero describes in detail how much work goes into these reconstructions and how they differ from the CGI creations common to popular documentaries.

Elements of Rhinoceros Giants will primarily appeal to paleobiologists, specifically the literature reviews and some of the graphs, but Prothero also writes in a clear voice for anyone interested in the ancient past and the age of mammals prior to modern humans. ( )

Interesting and thorough overview of ancient rhinoceroses, starting from the biographies of all the fossil hunters who dug up ancient rhino bones to rhino evolution, location, habitat, and speculation of their eventual demise. I found the 3 chapters dealing with the fossil hunter biography tedious, but the rhino portions of the book were interesting, if a bit bland. Sketches and an extensive bibliography are present. ( )

This book represents something of a debunking of the creature formerly known as "Baluchitherium," as it seems inevitable that the supposed largest land mammal that ever lived would generate a mythology that would be hard to dismantle in the wake of its earlier popularization. Among other points it's noted that these creatures went extinct rather earlier than one time thought, that the arid environment where they lived wasn't kind in terms of preserving fossils, which contributed to serious over-estimates of the size these creatures attained and it doesn't help that the localities where their fossils are found are not exactly friendly to foreign scientists. As for why they went extinct the current suggestion is that the emergence of early mastodons so changed the shared environment that these creatures were undermined and faded away. Also, I'm inclined to agree with the other reviewer that this book could have been better edited. ( )

A popsci book about indricotheres, a group of hornless rhinoceroses that included what were probably the largest land mammals ever (tho the largest mammoths and deinotheres were close). Somewhat disorganized perhaps - Prothero is one of those authors who will offhand mention something in chapter 2 and then get around to explaining it in chapter 5 - but basically a good quick read. Along with the animals themselves, a good deal of the space is dedicated to the world they lived in and the palaeontologists that discovered them.