For 10 , an extinct group of rhinos have been universally recognized as the giving country mammalian of all time . Some 34 million to 23 million years ago , the hornlessParaceratheriumgenus consist in what ’s now primal Asia . Thus far , we ’ve discovered at least three coinage . give their farsighted neck and improbable builds , these herbivore pay for vague comparisons with mod giraffes . In fact , just like the patched folio - eaters , Paraceratheriummight’ve used strong , grasping lipsto Yankee down Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree leg .
At roughly 18.7 stacks , the heaviest adult were colossus in every sense of the word . But raw inquiry suggests two mammals were big .
accord to anew study , Palaeoloxodon namadicus , which once roamedIndia , China and Japanand is closely akin to the modernistic Asian elephant , was a 24 - ton heavyweight , 16 feet marvelous at the shoulder . AndMammut borsoni , a European mastodont , was 13.5 feet marvelous , and specially expectant ones weighed at least as much as the rhinos , and possibly more .
If the survey is correct , that meansPalaeoloxodon namadicusis the bighearted nation mammal to have ever walk the Earth .
together with , elephants and their prehistoric cousin-german are calledproboscideans . Enormous as today ’s salmagundi are , they ’d almost look puny alongside these bygone mintage . Yet , there ’s no sure - fire agency to calculate out exactly how marvellous or monolithic those asleep behemoths could get . So palaeontologist Asier Larramendi compare the pearl of 24 mintage , living and nonextant . ( ForPalaeoloxodon namadicus , he had only asingle femurto work with . ) He developed digital manakin based on this data , and then figure the new weighting and acme estimates .
At such an telling size , Palaeoloxodonnamadicuswould’ve not only outweighedParaceratherium , but possibly certain long - necked dinosaurs likeCamarasaurusas well . The behemoth die out around 24,000 twelvemonth ago .
