Abstract
MOST accounts of rhinoceros skin detail its more obvious characteristics, namely, its rough, wrinkled and mammillated exterior, its well-keratinized epidermis and its thick, weighty and inelastic dermis. Concerning the structure of such skin and the possible presence of epidermal derivatives (other than horns) information is curiously wanting in authoritative zoological treatises1. It is frequently stated that body hairs, save those constituting the ear- and tail-fringes, are lacking in the Rhinocerotidae, though Beddard2 recognized an unobtrusive and rather sparse hairy covering as a general familial character.
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References
Flower, W. H., and Lydekker, R., “Introduction to the Study of Mammals, Living and Extinct” (Black, London, 1891). Oppel, A., “Lehrbuch der vergl. mikroskop. Anat. der Wirbeltiere” (Fischer, Jena, 1896–1916). Weber, M., “Die Säugetiere” (Fischer, Jena, 1928). Grassé, P.-P., “Traité de Zoologie”, 17 (1), 1109 (Masson, Paris, 1955).
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CAVE, A., ALLBROOK, D. Epidermal Structures in a Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum). Nature 182, 196–197 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1038/182196a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/182196a0
