Right off the bat I’d just like to say the world is a better place with rhinos in it. Rhinos for me are also interesting because they are vestiges of a bygone era; when I look at one, I can’t help but to be transported back in time.

Baby rhinos are super cute but they are also a decent stand in for a different type of rhinoceros. While we think of modern rhinos as horned creatures, a whole assortment evolved long ago without horns. From the giant indricotheres to aceratherium, a number of lineages lack this trait so characteristic of modern rhinos that they take their name after it.

Rhinoceratids and Perissodactyls in general were quite successful back in the Eocene, some 40 million years ago. When I see our baby rhino, `Akamu, running around; I picture those lush Eocene forests with hornless rhinos of various sizes and body shapes. It was a world where the largest meat-eaters were not animals like wolves, lion, bears & hyenas, but a strange assemblage of hyeanadonts, amphicyonids, terrestrial birds, and crocodyliformes. There were also holdovers from the Mesozoic like multituberculates that coexisted with these hornless rhinos. All now extinct, Rhinos remain but without care, they may join these strange and wonderful animals in extinction. We are lucky that we still can do something about that for these echos of the Eocene.

`Akamu can be seen in the Savannah section of the Honolulu Zoo, stop by and check out these amazing animals.