What is Deinotherium?
{{italictitle}} {{Taxobox | colour = rgb(220,220,183) | name = ''Deinotherium'' | fossil_range = [[Miocene|Middle Miocene]] {{ndash}} [[Pleistocene|Early Pleistocene]] | image = Dinotherium.jpg | image_width = 260px | image_caption = Illustration of ''Deinotherium'' | regnum = [[Animal]]ia | phylum = [[Chordate|Chordata]] | classis = [[Mammal]]ia | ordo = [[Proboscidea]] | subordo = †[[Deinotheriidae|Deinotheroidea]] | familia = †[[Deinotheriidae]] | genus = [[extinction|†]]'''''Deinotherium''''' | genus_authority = [[Johann Jakob Kaup|Kaup]], 1829}} [[File:Em - Deinotherium sp. - 2.jpg|thumb|250px|Definitely not the teeth of a grass-eater: more likely a [[mangrove]]-eater and/or a generalist plant-eater.]] '''''Deinotherium''''' was a large [[proboscidea]]n related to modern [[elephant]]s. Their downward curving tusks are notable. They are known from the middle [[Miocene]] to the early [[Pleistocene]]. ''Deinotherium'' is put in its own family (the Deinotheriidae) in the Proboscidea. There were several species of ''Deinotherium'' that lived in parts of [[Africa]], [[Asia]] and [[Europe]]. The ''Deinotherium'' was larger than today’s elephants. The way ''Deinotherium'' used its curious tusks has been much debated. It may have rooted in soil for underground plant parts like roots and [[tuber]]s, pulled down branches to snap them and reach leaves, or stripped soft bark from tree trunks.<ref>Harris J.M. 1976. Evolution of feeding mechanisms in the family Deinotheriidae (Mammalia: Proboscidea). ''Zool. J. Linn. Soc''. '''56''': 331-362</ref><ref>Konidaris G.E.; Roussiakis S.J.; Athanassiou A.; Theodorou G.E. 2017. Reprint of: The huge-sized deinothere Deinotherium proavum (Proboscidea, Mammalia) from the Late Miocene localities Pikermi and Halmyropotamos (Greece). ''Quaternary International''. '''445''': 5–22. Bibcode:2017QuInt.445....5K. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2017.07.038</ref> It helps to remember that the Miocene was much warner and wetter than today, and that the Africa of the Miocene had rather different fau