This concept image taken from the website of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences shows a new species of giant rhino named Paraceratherium linxiaense.

BEIJING - Fossils found in northwest China’s Gansu province indicate a new species of giant rhino that lived more than 26 million years ago, according to a paper published in the journal Communications Biology on Thursday.

The fossils including a skull and two vertebrae found in the reddish-brown sandstone of the Linxia basin shed light on how the ancient rhinos, some of the largest land mammals ever, evolved and moved across what is now Asia.

The fossils including a skull and two vertebrae found in the reddish-brown sandstone of the Linxia basin shed light on how the ancient rhinos, some of the largest land mammals ever, evolved and moved across what is now Asia

ALSO READ: New dinosaur species discovered in Australia, one of world's biggest

The dispersal of giant rhino fossils - others have been found on the far side of the Himalayas in Pakistan - indicate “Tibet, as a plateau, did not yet exist and was not yet a barrier to exchange of largest land mammals,” the paper said.

READ MORE: Growing number of species being protected

Giant rhinos like the newly discovered species, named Paraceratherium linxiaense, were hornless, long-necked herbivores, perhaps weighing 20 tonnes - equal to several elephants - and likely living in open woodland.