A GIANT rhino that lived 26.5million years ago could be the “largest land mammal” ever, boffins reckon.
The colossal beast was more than 26ft long, 16ft tall and weighed 24 tons.
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It was four times the size of an average African elephant — the biggest animal that walks the Earth today — or eight white rhinos.
The giant rhino — named Paraceratherium linxiaense — roamed Asia. As a herbivore, it eats shoots and leaves.
The Ice Age animal had a slender skull, short trunk and long, muscular neck.
Its fossilised remains were dug up in Gansu, north-western China and had a perfectly preserved jaw, skull and spine parts.
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Prof Tao Deng, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, said: “It is one of the largest land mammals that ever lived.
“Its nose trunk was extremely useful to wrap around branches — allowing the sharp front teeth to strip off the leaves.”
The giant rhino — which did not actually have a horn — is believed to have migrated from Pakistan and would have been hunted by gigantic crocodiles and vicious “dog-bears” called Hemicyon.
Scientists discover frozen carcass of extinct woolly rhino in Ice Age necropolis with its hazel-coloured hair intact after tens of thousands of years
