USA: fossil rhinoceros found in California

From the Lassen County Times in the USA:

SUSANVILLE, California (STPNS) — Nobody expects to find prehistoric bones in their backyard. But, that’s exactly what happened to Dr. Tom Krauel, an Alturas-based optometrist, and his wife Nancy.

A routine stroll last spring around their property west of town yielded quite a surprise.

“Underneath a piece of sagebrush, I saw just a little lump sticking out that looked unusual,” said Tom. “So, I just went over and picked it up.

“I don’t know why. I have a tendency to look around and pick up a lot of stuff,” he said.

Krauel’s innate curiosity had led him to a remarkable discovery.

“At the time, I thought it looked like an old cow bone. I don’t even know why I went over and picked it up,” he said.

As it turned out, they had discovered the bones of a prehistoric hippopotamus-like rhinoceros that lived 4.5 to 7 million years ago, according to paleontologists from Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif., who later identified the bones. …

The bones, explained the experts later, were from the right leg of a Teleoceras that lived during a previous geologic age to our own called the Miocene, long before the volcanic activity that covered this area with the lava formations that dominate today’s landscape.

Fossil rhinoceros from Shandong in China: here.

Fossil rhino in Greece: here.