Currently, the African elephant is considered the largest living land mammal (and also animal) in the world. Coming in at 7 meters (23 feet) long and 3.7 meters (12 feet) tall, these extant giants typically weigh 4 to 7 tonnes and also have the heaviest brain and nose of any terrestrial mammal.<\/p>\n
However, the record for the largest land mammal ever goes to the now-extinct Paraceratherium\u00a0\u2013 a massive hornless rhino with a giraffe-like long neck.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Found mostly in Asia, in China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan during the early to late Oligocene epoch (34\u201323 million years ago), these behemoths dwarf the biggest rhino we have today \u2013 the southern white rhino<\/a>, which can reach 4.2 meters (13.8 feet) long, 1.85 meters (6 feet) tall, and weighs 3.6 tonnes.\u00a0<\/p>\n How does Paraceratherium size up against these giants?<\/p>\n Image credit: Yegane Bagirova\/Benevector\/ Oleg Senkov\/Shutterstock.com and Chen Yu, created by IFLScience<\/p>\n Paraceratherium, meanwhile, is thought to have had a total length of 7.4 meters (24 feet) and a shoulder height of 4.8 meters (15.7 feet), making it the most massive mammal<\/a> to ever walk the Earth. The prehistoric goliath is also believed to have weighed around 17 tonnes \u2013 almost five times as much as its extant counterpart \u2013 based on estimates from a partially reconstructed skeleton in the American Museum of Natural History.<\/p>\n Back in 2021, a new species<\/a> of extinct giant rhino, Paraceratherium linxiaense, was discovered in Tibet. Dating from 26.5 million years ago, the fossils included a completely preserved skull, as well as a mandible and vertebrae from another individual.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe skull was more than a meter (3 feet) long,\u201d Deng Tao, lead author of a study presenting the findings, told CNN<\/a> at the time. \u201cIt was very rare for a skull of that size to be preserved.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Paraceratherium\u2019s\u00a0reign as the largest land mammal is not uncontested. Due to the incompleteness of fossils discovered, it\u2019s not possible to know for sure just how big these ancient rhinos grew \u2013 and they face some stiff competition from other extinct titans.<\/p>\n For example, some say the straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon, which lived around 700,000\u201350,000 years ago, was even bigger than\u00a0Paraceratherium, weighing up to 22 tonnes. This was based on just a fragment of a femur, however, so is discounted by others. Other estimates using more complete limb bones from juvenile elephants place\u00a0Palaeoloxodon\u2018s weight at a more modest 13\u201315 tonnes.<\/p>\n Borson\u2019s mastodon, which inhabited parts of Eurasia 5 to 2.5 million years ago, is thought to have weighed in the region of 15\u201316 tonnes, so would also give our enormous rhino a run for its money.<\/p>\n Regardless of the debate, none of these heavyweights come anywhere near the largest animal to ever walk the Earth<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not a mammal, but Patagotitan mayorum<\/a> was undeniably massive, stretching 37 meters (121 feet) in length and weighing the equivalent of 10 African elephants. The likes of Paraceratherium could never<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rhino.png\" "\\"A")
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