Prehistoric rhinoceros8/1/2023 ![]() ![]() The reasons for the animal's extinction are unknown, but various factors have been proposed. It lived in habitats ranging from arid deserts with a few scattered trees to subtropical forests. It was a browser, eating mainly leaves, soft plants, and shrubs. Because of its size, it would have had few predators and a long gestation period. The lifestyle of Paraceratherium may have been similar to that of modern large mammals such as the elephants and extant rhinoceroses. It had large, tusk-like incisors and a nasal incision that suggests it had a prehensile upper lip or proboscis (trunk). The long neck supported a skull that was about 1.3 metres (4.3 ft) long. Its weight is estimated to have been about 15 to 20 tonnes (33,000 to 44,000 lb). The shoulder height was about 4.8 metres (15.7 feet), and the length about 7.4 metres (24.3 feet). The exact size of Paraceratherium is unknown because of the incompleteness of the fossils. Paraceratherium means "near the hornless beast", in reference to Aceratherium, the genus in which the type species P. The first fossils were discovered in what is now Pakistan, and remains have been found across Eurasia between China and the Balkans. It is one of the largest terrestrial mammals that has existed and lived from the early to late Oligocene epoch (34–23 million years ago). ![]() Paraceratherium is an extinct genus of hornless rhinocerotoids belonging to the family Paraceratheriidae.
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