The Elephant That Was Bigger Than Every Non-Sauropod Dinosaur Ever

Today, elephants are the largest animals we have on land, pretty hardcore. And as is it turns, they actually used to be even more hardcore, with perhaps the craziest being the Paleoloxodon namadicus. This was a species of giant elephant that made any elephant today look small, and it was so big that it actually outsized ever non-sauropod dinosaur ever, with a few sauropods also being smaller than it. And it may come as a shocker, that this behemoth isn't even that ancient as it was stomping around in Eurasia less than 40,000 years ago.
S/O to @TheSpinoDude for the awesome thumbnail!
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[@ExtinctZoo]

Wanna See Something More Interesting: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n4vCmn-ursx-oLs The video may not have been updated yet, but in case you noticed to small cuts towards the end of the video, I had to remove two small sections

[@withlessAsbestos]

Isn’t Shantungosaurus like twice that weight?

[@K1ng_Squ1dZ]

"That still only counts as one!" -Gimli

[@michaeld.3931]

22 tons no match for legolas!

[@K1ng_Squ1dZ]

@@ronaldshepherd5992 read some hoes

[@mattchagnon5620]

​@@ronaldshepherd5992found the absolute idiot. Didn't take long.

[@fraskf6765]

​@@ronaldshepherd5992you are hurting your cause more than you think with those random stoopid comments. Why should we believe a book that was written a few thousand years ago? What in that book or in the world points to the christian god being the one and only truth? If you can answer me in some convincing way we can start talking about the bible.

[@themirror8994]

@@ronaldshepherd5992 I witnessed the corpse of your god. I feasted upon his rotten, divine flesh. And the gift was mortality, wickedness and arrogance. The very nature of humanity. There is nothing left, but a rotten carcass of your madeup religion you have created in shame of your deeds. And it was you who killed them, and we shall feast from them, from the world, piece by piece, that you have created, until it meets the same fate as the Carcass of your so called God.

[@morzorkatvfm]

Thanos for scale

[@creepy448]

😂 LOL

[@hakimzaaba7782]

Ah yes Thanos is an ELEPHANT

[@donhillsmanii5906]

This comment made me spit out 🥤 my drink

[@aerickmon3350]

3:07

[@danielrojas1663]

I want comic book Wolverine for scale as me and him are similar in height

[@ahmedshaharyarejaz9886]

The Trunk is the key to the Elephants massive size because, unlike other herbivores, elephants don't need long flimsy necks to reach the tops of trees. Elephants can grow larger and sturdier than non-trunk herbivores.

[@kirbywaite1586]

Good point.

[@ahmedshaharyarejaz9886]

@@kirbywaite1586 Thanks. I concluded this once I saw the thumbnail of the absolute unit that is the Namadicus.

[@tengen2251]

That function like sauropod neck. Elephants can pick up food without moving to much than expanding less energy.

[@kirbywaite1586]

@ahmedshaharyarejaz9886 They must have been majestic.

[@davidhouseman4328]

The trunk is important, but sauropods make it clear other options are available.

[@joshuaerkman1444]

So Oliphaunts were REAL. Good job Tolkien

[@gunsgalore7571]

Now we just need to find one of these big critters that had four tusks.

[@OldGreyGryphon]

@@gunsgalore7571There was one elephant (modern African Bush) that had four full sized tusks. You can see them at the Explorer’s Club in New York.

[@ShunkUp]

It is hard to evaluate biggest size without a large data set because you might have a Shaq fossil or a Kevin Hart fossil. Need to account for intra-species size variability.

[@michaeld.3931]

lmao

[@yourfriendlyneighborhoodghost.]

There aren't many shaqs or kevin in human species, so most likely preserved specimens would be of a normal person. 😅

[@artemesiagentileschini7348]

​@@yourfriendlyneighborhoodghost. Believe me there are at least hundreds of millions of people with Kevin Hart stature. The average south east asian are about 5'3-5'5 in height for men. And that is average. It means half of them are below that. For women it's 4'11 to 5'2. I assure you, from south east asia alone you'd get 300 million people with a height range of 5'1 to 5'4

[@adamgrimsley6455]

But despite all that, what remains is what remains. Healthy scepticism of course but run with it a bit

[@freddiemercury8237]

@@artemesiagentileschini7348cannot believe there’s an entire country that is at the same height as kevin hart...

[@noyb12345]

Can you imagine the damage caused when one of these giants went through a period of musth 💀

[@louismarlow53]

💀 indeed

[@beastmaster0934]

Absolutely catastrophic. It would be like a tornado or typhoon ripped through the area.

[@SoftwareLearningify]

O H. G O D. NO.

[@Tyranosaur678]

Imagine a patagotitan in musth💀

[@Sarnarath]

Interesting to see how the small Kiwi and Giant Elephant Bird are also more closely related to each other than to ostrich, just like the small forest elephant and Paleoloxodon Namadicus are more closely related to each other than to the modern African elephant.

[@loganstrong9874]

When 'Kiwi' arrived in New Zealand (although extremely extremely rare to find any fossil's in NZ from time periods outside of the Holocene and younger for land creatures ,there Is one rare site from the Miocene ,where assorts of bones and live was persevered including some Kiwi bones which showed they were 1/4 the size as they are today 20 million years ago .There was already the Moa ancestors here in the Miocene ,so the Kiwi couldn't fill in that niche of giant land bird ,also a giant ground Parrot was found living at the same time ,similar to the Kakapo but super sized ( Kakapo (flightless ) is the largest parrot alive today ,although only about 200 birds left of them today) so the kiwi had to find it's own niche ,amongst NZ's other birds living here in the Miocene .

[@Aethuviel]

Also the woolly rhino is most closely related to the Sumatran, while being in a size range and lifestyle more similar to the white.

[@godfreyofbouillon966]

A cow is more closely related to all the whales and dolphins than it is to a horse. And a wolf is more closely related to a sheep than to tasmanian wolf. Convergent evolution :)

[@eliletts8149]

I have read that the closeness in genetic relations between the African forest elephant and Paleoloxodon namadicus has been overstated. Not completely sure though.

[@kennethsatria6607]

Its got to be some sort of universal/evolutionary joke to have happened multiple times

[@saber_X-105]

3:32 Mumei what are you doing standing with that Brontosaurus😂?

[@daviddwarmachine]

Only civilization itself can measure up to Dinosaurs.

[@balvionstormhoof9540]

Aha! Thank goodness I was not the only one to notice her there

[@Sknasen]

Even Joakim from sabaton is hanging out with a Diplodocus

[@joshuaW5621]

Who would have guessed that there once was an elephant larger than T. rex.

[@oshkeet]

Weightwise, I can believe it. Dinosaurs cheat the system just like birds do by having all kinds of air sac bullshit thru their bodies so they're typically lighter than whatever an equivalent-sized mammal would be, which some scientists suspect is another reason dinosaurs got so big.

[@lordcooler8160]

Not just this one, the Steppe Mammoth and Columbian Mammoth were also larger than T.rex.

[@Ispeakthetruthify]

The largest African elephants today, weigh more than a T-Rex.

[@shalashaskaseven4841]

@@IspeakthetruthifyEhhh, not since cope and bertha

[@skeletorlikespotatoes7846]

Not really. There were probably been bigger t rexes

[@Thoralmir]

"Look Mr. Frodo! It's an Oliphant!"

[@mr.jglokta191]

Missed opportunity to name it "Oliphauntus Mumakili"

[@palmarolavlklingholm9684]

That there once again will come a truly huge specimen of the African Bush Elephant, is doubtful. Trophy hunters took out the biggest and healthiest specimens a long time ago. I do not think we will ever see anything like the 11 ton elephant that was killed in Angola in the fifties, ever again.

[@Ispeakthetruthify]

Yeah...the smaller the population of an animal becomes, the less likely you are to see true giants(among giants) in a species. Sadly, today there are just a little over 400,000 African elephants left in the world. Just to put it into perspective: In 1900, there were 10 million of them, and in 1800, there were 25 million of them. In a little over 200 years, their population has been nearly dwindled down to nothing, compared to what they once were. In a healthier population, even going back 70-80 years ago, seeing truly HUGE specimens within their population was not uncommon.

[@Mrmidknight-yx9pg]

We will with mountains of creatinine and a dream

[@megamente7849]

my man considerin a regular elephant weigths 5-6 ton seein 10 ton bois are absolute unit even among their kind, imagine how big can be the biggest trike when a regular une weigth 12 ton.

[@johnpohn3299]

​@@megamente78495-6 are indian male elephant 6-7 tonnes are African elephant. But some indian elephant can reach 6+ tonnes and some African elephant reach 8 tonnes

[@Bitchslapper316]

Yeah it's called evolution. We will probably see less elephants with tusks as well.

[@thalmoragent9344]

Megafauna are so cool to learn about tbh. Wild how we now have much fewer giants around these days.

[@mvalthegamer2450]

Wild to think that humans saw these animals, and hunted them down with literal rocks

[@clayc5929]

That’s just what they want you to think

[@MikhailTeplensky]

@@mvalthegamer2450js showed how much better we are

[@thepastavatars7939]

So basically, the Elephant and Rhino remain the two largest land mammals of all time.

[@shorelinefishing9213]

Pretty much lol

[@DanM-pw9nl]

Hippos are larger than most types of rhinos

[@thepastavatars7939]

@@DanM-pw9nl Still doesn't negate my comment.

[@DanM-pw9nl]

You're right, I just want them to get props too@@thepastavatars7939

[@00x0xx]

And the blue whale is the largest animal to ever existed, period.

[@saladinbob]

I wonder why it grew so big in the first place? The theoretical arms race between Sauropod and Therapod Dinosaurs make sense but there were no titanic mammalian predators to force this size.

[@marmedli9124]

Adult Elephants today have no preditors

[@80619Chris]

There could have been an arms race at one time but this elephant species proceeded to do so well that the predator just couldn't keep up. That, or we haven't found the predator it would have to race against just yet. Update: This is the first comment I've made that received 100 likes and I'm really proud of the subject material in which I got it. :)

[@Zaidrian93]

Oxygen levels and climate probably

[@zakinnamis5577]

Could have been competition with other herbivores

[@Sarnarath]

There were no predators so everyone could eat all the time, at that point other giant animal that eat a lot become the biggest rivals to fuel growth, this might have also been the case for the giant sauropods despite the occasional giant predator taking one out.

[@greenteamatcha]

So, Yujiro vs giant elephant was based of this

[@SharkNinjaBlueStar]

3:31 Surprise Mumei, for scale.

[@GTSE2005]

I love how some other members of the Paleoloxodon genus were shorter than a human

[@kbishop94]

Correct. They were called embryos.

[@GTSE2005]

@@kbishop94 I'm referring to the Mediterranean species which were cases of insular dwarfism

[@kbishop94]

@@GTSE2005 Understood. 👍🏻 (I was jk anyway. 🙃)

[@Prost81]

as said in the video....

[@WarriorVirtue]

I'm now imagining an alternate timeline where tiny elephants are commonly kept as pets.

[@NicholBrummer]

The story from huge zulu elephant hunts was that they had a group of people attack from the front as distraction, with a few brave men with an ax, attacking from behind, to chop through a rear achilles tendon. That disabled the elephant.

[@raylopez99]

Sounds like urban legend, or rather, savannah grasslands legend. More likely fire used to stampede the herd off a cliff or into a spiked trap.

[@grimnir8872]

@@raylopez99 What cliff? It's the African Grasslands.

[@raylopez99]

@@grimnir8872 The African rift in Kenya's grasslands....big cliffs in the flat plain, where humanity originated.

[@arthurteddy91]

⁠​⁠@@raylopez99... that isn't anywhere near where the Zulu people are from, though... the Zulu People are from Southern Africa, the Great Rift Valley is in Eastern Africa...

[@blacktigerpaw1]

​@@arthurteddy91Zulus are far from farther north. They migrated there after genociding other tribes.

[@t.kersten7695]

when watching this video, i had to think about the scenes from the second and third "Lord of the Rings"-Movie. and today i learn once again what interesting species our own real world ones had. and the sad thing is, i - like many other people - like big animals, despite knowing how many great small animals exist(ed) out there who don´t get even a fraction of the recognition, the humongous big species are always getting.

[@danielarato4021]

The interesting thing is that The Lord of the Rings is suposed to take place in the real world, but in the distant past. In the book itself, Tolkien says that in the ancient world there were giant elephants. Middle earth is just Eurasia…

[@L.P.1987]

The one in the thumbnail is even painted similar to them

[@Captain_Insano_nomercy]

@danielarato4021 that's one of the reasons that the story was so successful in my opinion. It's told like it's historical fact instead of fantasy

[@testodude]

The exact same picture came to my mind.

[@marcorval]

​@@danielarato4021in the book I think elephants were normal-sized, they were scaled up in the films for dramatic effect.

[@MovingWaif]

The largest land mammal to ever walk the earth? That would be your mom

[@Vandal_Savage]

Almost said it myself 😂

[@Eidolon1andOnly]

Only by weight, not by height.

[@SternaRegnixTube]

Hmm sounds about right

[@sabimosapagong5667]

no that would be case oh

[@staticbuilds7613]

"walk" She rolls

[@GeneralFactCheck]

Imagine if Namadicus survived long enough to be used in wars like the Crusades.

[@deividaskiznis906]

Well it did, didn't you see lord of the rings?

[@primisoda1400]

@@deividaskiznis906 oliphaunts are like 40 tons xd

[@pierre-samuelroux9364]

​@@deividaskiznis906when you believe a fantasy movie is rl:

[@kilroy6547]

@@pierre-samuelroux9364 when you have no idea how a joke works.

[@personalemail9329]

​@@kilroy6547I'm pretty sure jokes are supposed to be funny and not some lame overused reference to some popular media. But then again mentally stunted individuals laugh at anything. Still don't make it a joke.

[@Forestguardian]

Leave it to Elephants and Rhinos to be the Two largest land mammals ever

[@matthewbadger8685]

You can see a trend that as the elephant gets larger, the torso slopes more from the bottom of the femur to the top of the shoulder to form a right angle triangle, increasing its structural stability and allowing it to carry more weight without negatively affecting the spine. These animals were probably extremely sturdy and athletic for their size.

[@humanspoder777]

I love that this kind of in-depth content is out here for us all to just dig into. Thank you.

[@jonaswerner8480]

Where that Thanos from Marvel, Joakim from Sabaton and Mumei from HoloLive in those size comparisons? I'm laughing my ass off right now XD

[@marcorval]

If a 16 foot tall, 18 ton Namadicus were the average adult of its species...imagine an exceptionally-sized 36 ton one, 20 feet at the shoulder! This would basically be Peter Jackson's Mumakil.

[@touchstoneaf]

You mean Tolkien's, :-)

[@marcorval]

@@touchstoneaf I think the original mumakil from the books were closer to a real elephant in size. Peter Jackson exaggerated their size in the films for dramatic effect.

[@keepcalmlovedinosaurs8934]

Good video! Paleoloxodon needs more recognition! I have a brilliant eofauna model of one. A herd of paleoloxodon feature in chapter 16 of Carnian Street.

[@jackstraw4222]

same here i collect the eofauna models as well...they are very accurate...

[@toms.7383]

I have just come across your channel, and I now have to spend my Saturday watching all of your videos 😅. I look forward to all of your work in the future.

[@theobozikis8225]

Great video about a truly amazing animal! Thank you for making it.

[@pete4693]

I often look for these types of scaling pics when I'm comparing the sizes and shapes of things. I really understood the information, great job!

[@DreadnumYT]

One of my favorite animals. Good job on the video!!

[@50calM82A1]

A real life Oliphaunt from LOTR. Epic.

[@da_ostrichyeet7999]

Great Video! Paleoloxodon is such an amazing animal.

[@AHart7853]

Science: the paleoloxodon. Lotr fans: the mumakil(oliphant)

[@dariusbrock2351]

Man do I love videos like these. Thanks!

[@innocentpasserby9632]

3:30 what is mumei doing there?

[@donaldscholand4617]

Still smaller than an Oliphant ...

[@outofcompliance1639]

There are a lot these channels on the Tube, this is one of the best IMO.

[@sandphoenix4296]

Good work as always

[@williamwallace4080]

Recently subscribed to this channel so some terms are still new i.e. genus. Learning a lot though!

[@Eidolon1andOnly]

Which country are you from, and would you be a college student/college graduate? I only ask out of genuine curiosity and so I can offer some other channels if you like this one and want to learn more about topics like these. May I suggest a quick google of "Taxonomic Hierarchy" for a better understanding of what _genus_ really means.

[@TurboAutist-sg7lo]

The Joakim from Sabaton comparrison got me so confused for a sec but now i just realise that ur a cool dude

[@sam2cents]

Very exciting. Great video. The relationship to the African forest elephant is something I didn't know until now.

[@iamrichrocker]

for your great content..editing..and easy to listen narration you earned my sub..

[@jankster]

Loved it, great video. Nothing wrong with a big ol elephant

[@polishheavies8205]

Is it a possibility or already well known that at a certain level of evolving to giant sizes, size becomes a means of efficiency rather than defence

[@lIShattered_PerspectiveIl]

3:31 Sabaton lead vocalist Joakim and Anime Vtuber Mumei for size comparison

[@quickbeem]

Grey as a mouse Big as a house Nose like a snake I make the earth shake As I tramp through the grass Trees crack as I pass With horns in my mouth I walk in the South Flapping big ears Beyond count of years I stump round and round Never lie on the ground Not even to die Oliphaunt am I Biggest of all Huge, old, and tall If ever you'd met me You wouldn't forget me If you never do You won't think I'm true But old Oliphaunt am I And I never lie

[@RagShop1]

That's great; you should publish it.

[@danparish1344]

Gray giant, roaming wide, Trunk twisting, nature's guide. Ears fanning like great sails, In jungle deep, where daylight pales. Tusks of ivory, sharp and grand, Treading softly on forest land. Eyes gleaming with ancient tales, Majesty in every trail. In moon's glow or sun's fierce light, A marvel, an inspiring sight. Elephant, wise and vast, A legend from the past.

[@torbenkristiansen2742]

@@RagShop1 It is from "The lord of the Rings". By J.R.R. Tolkien. The lines were spoken by the fictional character "Samwise Gamgee".

[@RagShop1]

@@torbenkristiansen2742 I've seen the movies but didn't read the books. The giant elephants seen in the 2nd and 3rd movies was surely based on these extinct animals.

[@universalflamethrower6342]

@@RagShop1 I don't think Tolkien based his Elephaunts on scientific discovery, he probably used myth and his imagination to land on something that actually existed. Tolkien had a way around human experience and mythology rarely seen before or since.

[@_robustus_]

I wonder how many of these “species” were close enough to interbreed and if there was a speciation continuum.

[@randomgamerdude98]

Since the modern forest elephant is more closely related to paleoloxodon then the african bush elephant, should we change its genus name to something else? Or to paleoloxodon as well?

[@Ozraptor4]

More recent work suggests the genetic result in the forest elephant is likely due to crossbreeding between Loxodonta and Palaeoloxodon rather than the forest elephant emerging directly from the Paleaoloxodon lineage. There is also evidence of gene transfer between Palaeoloxodon and mammoths & Asian elephants = male elephants seem to be happy to mate outside their species.

[@beastmaster0934]

@@Ozraptor4 I guess the bulls love exotic ladies xD

[@andresdeleon5160]

This is fantastic and incredible

[@kinnybingman8666]

I noticed no mention of the Mastodon or the mammoth. Where do they fit in this?

[@kade-qt1zu]

What do you mean by that?

[@DanM-pw9nl]

Maybe he meant "just" the mammoth. Mastodons aren't at big as this particular mammoth so they didn't discuss it

[@eliletts8149]

I have read that the closeness in genetic relations between the African forest elephant and Paleoloxodon namadicus has been overstated. Not completely sure though. Those 2 species are still very interesting though! Very solid video!

[@UniDocs_Mahapushpa_Cyavana]

I presume pre-civilisation humans only hunted megafauna when they were in a compromised position, such as traveling beneath an elevated position, in a drought, in the period they just left the herd and are inexperienced and smaller, while in water, or constricted without a way to retreat or fight back. This would still cause a lot of extinction as megafauna populations tend to be pretty low in general, adding any significant predation from virtually 0 is a a big jump, and the megafauna might make decisions to avoid human hunting that would reduce their numbers e.g. avoid migrating.

[@fiddleriddlediddlediddle]

Nothing makes me happier than the biggest mammal ever being another elephant.

[@spartakos536]

I love so much Palaeoloxodon, and i bought its Eofauna figure. The charismatic giant!

[@MARS72JJ]

Ahhh the Lord of the Rings elephants

[@bustavonnutz]

Being that huge meant that even newborns would've been too big for all but the largest macropredators to take down. That said, it would've had ridiculously long gestation rate & been incredibly sensitive to habitat conversion. It isn't a coincidence that the Proboscidians that came after them were more modest in size; widespread ecosystem restructuring over the course of the Pleistocene effectively doomed most of the megafauna that carried over in the Pliocene. Blaming Humans for that just reveals how many so-called "scientists" have an anti-natalist bias.

[@Dell-ol6hb]

No scientists are claiming that these megafauna were solely brought to extinction by humans, they just list humans as one of many contributing causes, which is true, I don't see how this is in any way anti-natalist. Though I also have no doubt plenty of species were wiped out by humans, which is just expected when any invasive species enters a new environment, there's a reason Africa still has the most megafaunal species left and it surely cannot all be coincidental that many species went extinct shortly after humans arrived in a region.

[@yissibiiyte]

Scientists "blame humans" because plenty of megafaunal extinctions very coincidentally match perfectly with the arrival of humans. Plus the African megafauna managed to survive just fine, probably due to living alongside early humans and adapting to them early. I'm not saying climate and habit change didn't contribute to their extinction, but you can't pretend that humans didn't play a massive role as well

[@bustavonnutz]

@@yissibiiyte When you coincide for 30,000 years (or longer) before the decline takes place this argument fails to hold water. Human history/diaspora occured much earlier than scientists predicted when they talked about Native Americans or Eurasians slaughtering Pleistocene megafauna to extinction. Now we know that the mass conversion of an entire biome i.e. the Mammoth Steppe into Boreal Conifer Forest was actually the main driver of the extinction/decline for most of these species. Only the ones that could adapt to open grasslands or denser forests were able to survive. As the Mammoth Steppe was more like a Temperate Savannah it mimicked the conditions/niches we find in modern Africa. There even to this day we see Pleistocene megafauna persist in Subsaharan Africa despite millennia of coexistence with people because their habitats have remained (mostly) intact. This is simply not the case with the Holarctic Realm.

[@Vulcano7965]

As you said, these representatives of megafauna have long gestation periods and low offspring numbers. It doesn't take much to drastically reduce the numbers in a relative short amount of time, especially if these animals had little to fear of natural predators before.

[@Diadema033]

@@Vulcano7965 not at all, in fact also many 'rapid' animals were extinct, but you cannot explain why the horses or elaphants survived in the Old world but not in the new world one. And vice versa for some other species.

[@FrshJurassicPrnceYA]

There are some specimens of giant Hadrosaurs that could rival Paleoloxodon in size (although they are fragmentary). Still, Paleoloxodon namadicus is a very impressive elephant that gave even the Paraceratherium a run for its money.

[@texasrockshillcountry6574]

It's amazing that we don't hear of these. Instead we only hear of Mammoths and Mastodons. How did they go extinct?

[@tatumergo3931]

Lack of supermarkets

[@nicolocadamuro9988]

To be fair, some species of hadrosaurs were longer and havier than Paleoloxodon

[@waynetemplar2183]

Indeed. Shantungosaurus is estimated to have been 15 metres in length and weighed 17 tonnes.

[@ericvogt7123]

Oliphant!

[@AlbertaGeek]

They still only count as one!

[@ericvogt7123]

@@AlbertaGeek LoL

[@GeneralFactCheck]

Maybe the only land mammal in history that could be considered the favorite in a hypothetical match against a T-rex.

[@glitterytrinket6246]

Great show

[@alexbowman7582]

Perhaps dinosaurs didn’t stop growing during their life, like crocodiles, and just got bigger and bigger until their size killed them so the fossils we find are untypical and for most of their lives dinosaurs were slightly smaller.

[@robertmiles1603]

Nigel: I’ve heard that mainly, these large apes, they’re bread eaters mainly. They go for any kind of bread. David: And yet as a race they’ve developed no baking skills… Nigel: None whatsoever, no… David: But they still feed on bread primarily. Derek: They’re not a race, though they’re a genus… Nigel: Well, some of them are smarter than others, you can’t really…. David: They’re a culture. Derek: They’re a genus and a sub culture. David: They’re not a counter culture though. You think of the baboons as being a counter cultural ape… Nigel: The smaller monkeys are mainly bread eaters as well… David: Well I know a bloke with a monkey that eats soup. Onion soup with crumbly bits on top….

[@tankc6474]

Great vid respect from Ireland 🇮🇪 👏 👍

[@Hugllls1971]

I wonder if the head crest had massive muscles attached to it for head movements, which makes perfect sense considering the other features attached to its head like tusks!

[@RedRaikou]

Anyone knows if the huge elephants in Lord of the rings are based on one of these species? PS: Obviously they weren't as huge as the ones from the movies.

[@user-vc8pu5vk6z]

I'm sure fell beasts in books also were described looking like pterosaurs rather than wyverns.

[@kotarojujo2737]

its actually based on Stegotetrabelodon because its have four tusk just like Mumakil in PJ movies

[@tm43977]

Palaeoloxodon namadicus a Pleistocene giant pachyderm

[@Gamerafighter76]

KZbin seems to have an uptick in Palaeoloxodon vids lately; it’s amazing with the interest in this prehistoric megafauna.

[@T6_the_goat]

Bro needs more subs

[@IncoGnito-ji5du]

The true "Big E"

[@J.D.Vision]

I wonder if these magnificent mammals could've been domesticated like modern elephants 🐘, imagine 🤔 the possibilities.

[@Ispeakthetruthify]

Maybe they could have. But when these animals lived, humans were hunter-gatherers and nomadic. The domestication of animals is a relatively recent phenomena in human history.

[@J.D.Vision]

@Ispeakthetruthify • Maybe... 🤷 Ever heard of the Silurian hypothesis? 🤔

[@Ispeakthetruthify]

@@J.D.Vision Yeah I have, and it's an interesting hypothesis. But it generally talks about possible advanced civilizations on this planet millions of years ago. If there was an advanced civilization on this planet within modern human history(as far back as 200,000 years ago), we would have found some sort of evidence of that by now. In terms of geologic time, that's not that long ago. We for surely would have found evidence of an advanced civilization that was present when Paleoloxodon was roaming the planet. And that would mean we(Homo Sapiens) would be on the planet along with this advanced civilization. Now something that may have been on the planet tens, to hundreds of millions of years ago, would be a different story. That would be sufficient time for nearly all of the evidence of a possible advanced civilization, to be completely erased by time.

[@pinklee2729]

Wonderful channel❤😊

[@KyoushaPumpItUp]

3:30 Sabaton Vocalist and Nanashi Mumei

[@SmallFries01]

I dunno, I think Shantungosaurus gives it a run for it's money with the upper estimates being 20 tons.

[@harrywaser7117]

still havnt found many charcara or giga skellys yet either...their upper maximum may yet shine through

[@thefordlord9893]

Palaeo could've reached at least 15 to potentially 22 tons in weight, carcha and giga aren't touching that, at all. @@harrywaser7117

[@Eidolon1andOnly]

Welcome to my TED Talk that I'm sure most won't see, and even fewer will bother to read. I encourage the brave and curious not to be intimidated by the length and hear me out. _The Human Hunter Hypothesis_ No way stone age humans were responsible for hunting any large megafauna to extinction, or could even play a significant role in their extinction through directly hunting the large animals. Relatively sudden changes in climate would be the number one culprit in my opinion, as it makes more logical sense. If human hunting played any part in the extinction of megafauna it wouldn't be from hunting the large animals directly, but through hunting smaller creatures that contributed to the food chain. Smaller animals like birds up to deer/antelope sized animals (these being easier/less dangerous prey) that were essential in spreading seeds in their scat or fur. Seeds necessary to sprout and provide the food for the larger herbivores, and when that food was no longer accessible and the large herbivores died off from starvation, their large predators would also die off. Even then this overhunting of smaller animals wouldn't be a large contributing factor for the megafaunal creatures. The hunting of megafauna would have to be out of desperation, due solely to the extreme risks involved. Large herbivores can be just as dangerous, or even moreso, as predators. I think the whole idea of human hunting being associated with megafaunal extinction by paleontologists, paleoanthropologists, etc. has more to do with a combination of factors; 1) the infancy of the modern natural sciences having not yet been refined and its small sample size of discoveries of megafauna remains showing signs of human hunting/butchery which led to, 2) a convenient explanation for why these animals suddenly died out, given the strong correlation of human appearance in some regions followed shortly by megafaunal extinctions. Since the hunting of such large beasts would take sophistication and intelligence, this fed into, 3) Good old fashioned human hubris, that still persists to this day. Since a lot of the natural sciences as we know them began around the early 19th century, it would be in poor taste in "modern society" to entertain the idea that early humans could be weak and vulnerable creatures barely surviving, however it would be "en vogue" to entertain the idea of early humans being masters of their domain and able to conquer the largest beasts to ever walk, especially at a time when the eperts in their field still held onto religious values like God giving Adam (and thus all mankind) domain over all creatures. This mindset (albeit less religious and more secular) still exists and a lot of misconceptions of our early ancestors are only recently being overturned. There's still too many in the general public who think neanderthals were more ape-like than human, and even scientists more skeptical about neanderthal intelligence and capabilities with some believing they weren't capable of spoken language or creating art. This in spite of ever growing recent discoveries of artistically crafted artefacts found at sites known to be neanderthal. Even today it is still widespread that our ancestors are responsible, or at least partly, for the extincion of megafauna across most of Eurasia and the Americas. This theory is so bogus and easily disproven by the extant (still living) species of megafauna in Africa. The _Out of Africa Theory_ is the best model we have to explain human origins with the African continent bearing the most sites containing early H. Sapiens and other human species sites including H. Erectus and H. Neanderthalensis (among others in our genus). There's no good explanation as to why early humans would hunt prehistoric megafauna to extinction across the entirety of Eurasia and the entirety of the Americas but leave Aftica's populations alone, especially since the largest populations of early humans would remain in or around Africa, Near/Middle East, and the Mediterranean. The Australian military lost a war to Emus in an effort to essentially make them go extinct and they had all the modern advantages including the use of machineguns, yet there's still a narrative of how small family/tribal groups of stone age hunters wiping out entire populations of megafaunal herbivores, even hunting large predators. This hypothesis is rooted in the development and use of projectile weapon technology and persistence/endurance hunting (literally running animals to death). For that to be even remotely possible the success rate for each hunt would need to be extremely high. So high that it falls into the realm of statistical impossibility. Even today modern hunters using rifles and other modern technologies (including corrective leses to improve eyesight) are considered especially skilled if they achieve higher than maybe a 56% success rate on average. I personally believe that the most likely explanation for the correlation between human hunters arriving in some locations and the resulting extinction of megafaunal species is due to environmental factors, namely sudden changes in climate, that pushed human migration into those regions. Early humans appearing in regions with megafauna could've also contributed more to their demise through the diseases and parasites they carried with them or those carried by their hunting dogs. Stone age hunters might be responsible for the recorded prehistoric extinctions found on islands, even larger ones like New Zealand's in the case of the large flightless moas, but that was only due to the limitations of the land size. Vast areas like Eurasia and the Americas wouldn't allow for such devastating hunting practices. The only truly known examples of continental sized extinctions caused by human hunting are modern examples involving relatively large populations of humans using modern weaponry (and possibly equally through human land development resulting in habitat loss) like in the case of the passenger pigeon. Presently it's estimated that +/-80% of successfully hunted animals are from only the same 10% of hunters. Keep in mind these are people using every modern technology at their disposal in designated hunting areas with a finite sqaure area. Only 1 in 10 out of hundreds or thousands of contemporary modern human hunters would be considered highly skilled, with the rest of the 90% being of varying skill level progressing downward with a majority being closer to being almost completely unskilled. Now try to picture small family groups/tribes beginning to inhabit huge areas like Eurasia, most not knowing how to craft anything more sophisticated than a throwing spear and possibly the atlatl, and only some having the most advanced technology being the most primitively basic bow and arrow, and these groups statistically having very few members capable of hunting, and even fewer being successful at it, during a time between 70,000 years ago when humans nearly went extinct with an estimated total human population size globally no higher than 100,000 due to the eruption of a supervolcano called Toba, to roughly 10,000 years ago after the last major ice age where the global human population spread across all continents (excluding Antarctica) was only 4 million (half the population size of London), somehow being capable of causing the extinction of something like 85% of all megafaunal animals. Also consider that the majority of that 4 million in human population would still be centered around Africa and the surrounding area of the Mediterranean. Does that sound like it makes sense? A big thanks to anyone for getting this far, I appreciate taking the time to do so. I hope that my rambling may have provided something of value worth that time and effort. This concludes my TED Talk. Have a good day and take care.

[@Dell-ol6hb]

Megafaunal species like Paleoloxodon are far more prone to this because of their long gestation and growth rates killing reproductively developed adults could cause a lot of damage to the species' numbers because it could take literal decades before another adult reaches that age and size, this is also why rapid climate change would be especially bad for them because it takes so long to adapt to any rapid changes in their environment with such a long reproductive cycle.

[@Eidolon1andOnly]

@@Dell-ol6hb Very true.

[@AlbertaGeek]

_"80% of successfully hunted animals are from only the same 10% of hunters"_ Citations needed.

[@Eidolon1andOnly]

@@AlbertaGeek I believe I read that in the _Current Anthropology (No. 6) Volume 47_ published in 2006. That was one of the more generous stats I remember, but there's loads of data involving all kinds of different human groups using different hunting methods and hunting different prey animals. I encourage anyone to research these kinds of stats for themselves and see what they can discover. Looking for "Average success rate fof human hubters" can turn up all kinds of interesting results. That stat I shared isn't even all that surprising when you think about it. I'm sure it's possible that a similar stat can be found in some sports like maybe basketball, where a small percentage of players make up the majority of all successful free throws for example. In terms of hunting like my country of the USA, there's typically laws regulating hunting that limitis the time of year, type of game, means of hunting, how many animals that can be kept, and area that can be hunted. Wouldn't it make sense then that there'd be relatively few licensed hunters with the means and capability to take full advantage of full hunting seasons going after varying game animals and aiming to succeed in bagging the maximum limit each time they hunted vs the hunters that only go out for one or two weeks out of a year and/or only go after specific game, or even the licensed hunters who are just weekend warriors?

[@GoodForYou4504]

Your "Ted talk" did affect my thinking on the subject. I still believe that gathering food was a full-time job for all that were able. That being said, your point about favoring less dangerous pray makes a lot of sense. Trapping a few birds, rabbits, or fish each day would be much easier and safer than trying to take down a woolly mammoth. I could understand doing so in preparation for winter if in that type of area, but they would still have to deal with preserving a large amount of meat in a wilderness environment and all the difficulties that would entail. (If in an area of long freezing, there could be more focus on large pray, of course they could just as easily freeze or smoke small pray) Though it's clear that ancient humans did hunt the megafauna of the time, I now doubt they were the main cause for extinction. Environment seems a more likely killer. I would add that it is clear humans of 20k years ago were just as intelligent as we are today and better able to live in nature than almost anyone now. They would be able to rapidly adapt to changes around them while everything else would not. So thank you for a thought-provoking comment! 👏

[@gregtheflyingwhale6480]

It makes sense! If nowadays elephants can handle being so huge, then in the past they should've been enormous

[@santiagoerizaga4519]

Great video, very interesting. I love proboscideans💘🐘

[@tajadoleternal5514]

3:30 what the moom doing?

[@aznravechild6i9]

Mooming

[@JoseRamirez-rk6si]

This video does show a lot of, hopefully, facts about what type of animal had ever existed. So now I can imagine thousands of all kinds of animals. A lot of different kinds of animals.

[@deepmalyadas6585]

Hey, would you happen to have the source source of the image at 2:29 ? I think it's the Indian National Museum which happens to be in my city, so i was just curious.

[@jlgonzales2322]

Definitely came to this video after watching the Monster Face off between Paleoloxodon and T.rex

[@darylwilliams7883]

Oliphaunts are real!

[@luisvelez1952]

Imagine the size of the Lion subspecies that hunted the Paleoloxodon in a large pack. 10-🦁 + 1-🐘= 🥩

[@mark-zuberrodrigues]

Well there was a species of a tiger called Panthera tigris solensis that was the same size as of American Lion and twice large than modern tigers.

[@thefordlord9893]

this is an elephant that dwarfed non-sauropod dinosaurs, no terrestrial mammalian predator (excluding humans) would be able to take it down apart from hunting very young individuals.

[@sadrakeyhany7477]

​@thefordlord9893 i suppose a hunting strategy like the komodo dragon's one could bring it down pretty easily. Sneak, bite and dip then wait for it to bleed out. But I don't think many mammals have venom 😅

[@thefordlord9893]

There aren't any predatory mammals with venom, and literally no big cats or other large mammalian predators with it either. Plus, even if it did get bit by a venomous animal, due to the elephant's sheer size and powerful immune system, it would probably just get sick (depending on the venom's potency).@@sadrakeyhany7477

[@jesuscarmelorodriguezlem-id2vu]

Very good Documaster.

[@skyrocket0113]

This is amazing! Elephants bigger than some dinosaurs! They would have had no enemies apart from humans! 22 tonnes, they were massive!👍

[@soulsbourne]

Given it's size, i don't think they would have lived in heards, because of sharing of food, rather were loners like polar bears or tigers which is why they were easily hunted

[@alejandroelluxray5298]

"Easily" hunted I doubt that a group of humans would call that an easy hunt

[@thefordlord9893]

Yea, they definitely weren't easy to hunt, like at all. This is an elephant that dwarfed the T.rex for crying out loud.

[@KWillo]

​@@alejandroelluxray5298 Idk maybe humans figured to aim for the head.IYKYK

[@pjenestratsienatie1876]

And people say a t Rex would win. A lone male could put a rex to shame

[@RichardPayanDC]

Loved the Thanos image at 3:08!

[@mikistenbeck6517]

so the Mumakill elephant in Lord of the Rings can be based a Paleoloxodon Namadicus? that's awesome.

[@SpeedDemon_Editzzz]

Moooooooooooo🦣🔥💯

[@Science-of-Dinosaurs]

A paleoloxodon was 18-19 tons heavy and 6.7 (without teeth) meters long and 4.3 meters tall. The shantungosaurus was 16 tons heavy and 15 meters long and 5 meter tall. The shantungosaurus was in relationship to paleoloxodon bigger. (I know in sience size is defined by the weight of the animal). Shantungosaurus was a hadrosaur.

[@theschalowest1263]

3:31- Oh hi :D

[@LetsTakeWalk]

3:08 Thanos used as a size reference, nice.

[@TheTamriel]

That's what I'd call an oliphaunt (Mûmak) of the Haradrim in the South of Middleearth

[@drdiabeetus4419]

Grey as a mouse, Big as a house, Nose like a snake, I make the earth shake, As I tramp through the grass; Trees crack as I pass. With horns in my mouth I walk in the South, Flapping big ears. Beyond count of years I stump round and round, Never lie on the ground, Not even to die. Oliphaunt am I, Biggest of all, Huge, old, and tall. If ever you'd meet me You wouldn't forget me. If you never do, You won't think I'm true; But old Oliphaunt am I, And I never lie. -J.R.R Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers

[@jackstraw4222]

amusing really...never heard of that but iv saw the movies...

[@abdulazizrex]

A truly spectacular creature!