Deinotherium

Deinotherium is an extinct genus of large, elephant-like proboscideans that lived from the Middle Miocene until the end of the Early Pleistocene. Although its appearance is reminiscent of modern elephants, Deinotherium differered considerably from modern elephants in several anatomical details: it possessed a notably more flexible neck, proportionally more slender limbs, tapir-like teeth, as well as tusks which grew down and curved back from the lower jaw (mandible), and lacked tusks growing from the upper jaw. Several species of Deinotherium grew larger than modern elephants, not uncommonly reaching shoulder heights of and body masses of , making them among the largest land mammals ever. Deinotherium was a widespread genus, during the Miocene they ranged across East Africa, and Eurasia from Western Europe to the Indian subcontinent. They were browsing animals, with a diet largely consisting of leaves. The genus most likely went extinct due to environmental changes, such as forested areas gradually being replaced by open grasslands, during the latter half of the Neogene. Deinotherium thrived the longest in Africa, where they survived until the end of the Early Pleistocene, around 1 million years ago.

==History and naming== In 1613, a gravestone engraved with the name "Theutobochus Rex" was reputedly excavated from a sand pit in the vicinity of Langon, near Montrigaud in southeast France, also reputedly alongside enormous bones, and silver coins depicting the Roman Republic leader Gaius Marius, who had defeated the Germanic king Teutobod (who by the 17th century was often mythologised as a giant) and his army in southern France around 100 BC. A French surgeon named Mazurier exhibited these relics across France, and for some time they were located in apartments owned by Queen of France Marie de' Medici. However, the veracity of the story was quickly questioned and subject to much controversy, with a long-running dispute via an exchange of pamphlets between the University of Paris surgeon Nicholas Habicot, who argued for a giant identity, and botany student and anatomist Jean Riolan who argued based on comparative anatomy that the bones represented some kind of large animal (in Riolan's opinion likely an elephant), and that the supposed discovery was either mistaken or a fraud.