paraceratherium
Group Placental mammals
Date Late Oligocene to Early Miocene
Size 8m long
Location Pakistan, Kazakhstan, India, Mongolia, China
Paraceratherium was a gigantic, hornless rhinoceros from the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene of Asia, its immense skull alone was 1.3m long and had two conical upper tusks, flaring lower tusks, and retracted nasal openings suggesting a fleshy proboscis. Its immense size and long neck allowed Paraceratherium to feed on the tops of trees, like a giraffe does today. Despite its huge size, Paraceratherium still had the long toes and limbs of its ancestors, the hyracodonts, and not the stumpy toes found in similarly huge beasts, such as elephants.