Indricotherium << in DRIH koh THEER ee uhm >> is a name used for an extinct, hornless rhinoceros known from fossils discovered in Eurasia. Indricotherium was part of a group of animals called indricotheres. They were the largest land mammals that ever lived. An adult indricothere was about four times as large as a full-grown elephant. It stood nearly 16 feet (5 meters) high at the shoulder and weighed up to 20 tons (18 metric tons). Fossils of this giant mammal were first identified and named as early as 1910.
Several indricotheres have been identified from fossils and classified under different names, including Baluchitherium, Dzungariotherium, and Paraceratherium. Today, most paleontologists recognize all indricotheres as varieties of a single genus, Paraceratherium. However, the name indricothere remains common for these creatures.
Indricotheres flourished in the Oligocene Epoch, between 33 and 23 million years ago, in Europe and Asia, especially in what is now Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, and the Balkans. Indricotheres had a huge head and jaws over 4 feet (1.2 meters) long. They had large, low-crowned teeth suitable for crushing plants. These forest-dwelling giants could reach high into trees for browsing on soft leaves and tender young branches. Like modern elephants, adult indricotheres were so large that they had little to fear from predators.
During the Oligocene Epoch, lush forests covered the landscape of Eurasia. As the global climate cooled, grassland habitats became more widespread by the beginning of the Miocene Epoch about 23 million years ago. Grasslands replaced the forests that indricotheres depended upon. The animals died out completely during the Miocene Epoch, about 16 million years ago.
