The giant rhinoceros that roamed ancient was the largest land mammal that ever existed. This conclusion was reached by scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, having studied the fossils found in a whole cemetery of prehistoric animals in the Gansu province in the northwest of the country.
The bones were found in sediments of the late Oligocene, which are 26.5 million years old. As it turned out, the giant ancestor of modern rhinos, Paraceratherium linxiaense, looked more like an overgrown tapir - it had no horns, but it had a short trunk and an unusually long muscular neck.
The colossal creature weighed 24 tons and was four times heavier than the African elephant, the largest animal that now walks on earth. The herbivorous giant reached eight meters in length and almost 5 meters in height and, with an elongated neck and a raised nose, could eat leaves from trees at a height of seven meters.
Lead author Professor Tao Deng noted that Paraceratherium is closely related to Pakistan's giant rhinos, suggesting that it passed through the Tibetan region. On its way across the Asian continent, this amazing creature encountered prehistoric hyenas and giant crocodiles and survived the cold desert of the Ice Age.
The results of the work were published in the journal Communications Biology.
Blogs
