What word, from the Greek, is used to describe animals such as Elephants, Rhinoceroses etc.?
Pachydermata ungulates; and anatomical characters support the affinities of "pachyderm" mammals to each other and to other ungulates. Pachydermata Placcyderma (from two Greek words παχύς "pachys", "thick" and δέρμα "derma", "skin", meaning 'thick skin') is an obsolete order of mammals described by Gottlieb Storr, Georges Cuvier and others, at one time recognized by many systematists. Because it is polyphyletic, the order is no longer in use, but it is important in the history of systematics. Outside strict biological classification, the term "pachyderm" remains commonly used to describe elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotamuses. Cuvier's Pachydermata included the three families of mammals he called
Rhinoceroses in ancient China rhinos were held captive even during the period of Confucius (500 B.C.E): "And further, you speak wrongly. When a tiger or rhinoceros escapes from his cage; when a tortoise or piece of jade is injured in its repository:-whose is the fault?" ("Analects 16:7). During the Tang Dynasty a number of rhinoceroses were presented to the imperial court from south-east Asian countries, including Champa, Chinrap, and Kalinga, as well as Tibet and a country named as Persia. At least some of these rhinoceroses were specimens of the Greater One-horned Rhinoceros ("Rhinoceros unicornis"). Performing elephants and rhinoceroses took part in the entertainments