A giant ancestor to the modern-day rhinoceros roamed 26.5 million years ago, according to the team that found its remains.
It was the ‘largest land mammal’ that ever lived, reaching 26ft long and 16ft tall, according to the team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing.
The colossal creature, named Paraceratherium linxiaense, Insecta weighed 24 tons and was four times heavier than an African elephant, the largest animal to walk the Earth today.
The hornless herbivore roamed Asia 26.5 million years ago – browsing the forests for leaves, soft plants and shrubs and looked similar to an ‘overgrown tapir’.
The fossilised remains of this giant beast, whose neck let it reach trees as high as 23ft, were dug up at a prehistoric animal graveyard in Gansu, north western China.
The bizarre animal had a slender skull, short trunk and an unusually long and muscular neck, the Chinese researcher said, adding it was a ‘friendly giant’.
A giant ancestor to the modern-day rhinoceros roamed China 26.5 million years ago and was taller than a giraffe, according to the team that found its remains
The fossilised remains of this giant beast, whose neck let it reach trees as high as 23ft, were dug up at a prehistoric animal graveyard in Gansu, north western China
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS sciencetech" data-version="2" id="mol-aa804410-cf78-11eb-b1d0-edb2e520cec0" website RHINO 4 times heavier than elephant roamed China 26m years ago
