Deinotherium - Art Print 13" x 19"
Early Miocene to Late Pliocene

Prehistoric animal. Deinotherium by Josef Moravec. Art Print 13" x 19".
The original is in the Art Collection of Dinosaur Corporation.

Deinotherium ("terrible beast") was a gigantic prehistoric relative of modern-day elephants that appeared in the Middle Miocene and continued until the Early Pleistocene. During that time it changed very little. In life it probably resembled modern elephants, except that its trunk was shorter, and it had downward curving tusks attached to the lower jaw.

Deinotherium is the third largest land mammal known to have existed; only Indricotherium and Paraceratherium were larger. Males were generally between 3 and 4.5 meters (10 and 15 feet) tall at the shoulders although large specimens may have been up to 5m (16ft). Their weight is estimated to have been between 5 and 10 tonnes, with the largest males weighing in excess of 12 tonnes. Deinotherium's range covered parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Deinotherium is the type genus of the family Deinotheriidae, evolving from the smaller, early Miocene Prodeinotherium. These proboscideans represent a totally distinct line of evolutionary descent to that of other elephants, one that probably diverged very early in the history of the group as a whole. The large group to which elephants belong formerly contained several other related groups: besides the deinotheres there were the gomphotheres (some of which had shovel-like lower front teeth), and the mastodonts.