PRATT MUSEUM PHOTOS

Alongside the Pratt Museum's mammoth and mastodon skeletons is the mounted skull of another giant elephant, Deinotherium. Deinotherium giganteum, one species in this genus, was the second largest land mammal ever to walk the earth, trailing only Indricotherium. A typical Deinotherium giganteum stood about 15 feet (4.5 meters) tall and sported tusks that arched down and back, rather and up and forward like many other elephants. This species ranged across Europe, Asia, and Africa until they died out in the Pleistocene.

In her recent book, The First Fossil Hunters-Paleontology In Greek and Roman Times, folklorist Adrienne Mayor writes that several early Greek philosophers happened on Deinotherium skulls and bones and believed that they were the skeletons of gods and mythical monsters. One such bone bed in Greece was even thought to represent a plethora of large skeletons left after a colossal, god-ordered fire. In fact, these bones actually belonged to Deinotherium.

© 1997 brusatte@theramp.net

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