Deinotherium

Deinotherium is a genus of large extinct elephant-like proboscideans that appeared in the Middle Miocene and survived until the Early Pleistocene. Although superficially resembling modern elephants, they had notably more flexible necks, limbs adapted to a more cursorial lifestyle as well as tusks emerging from the lower jaw that curved downwards and back, lacking the upper tusks present in other proboscideans. Deinotherium was a widespread genus, ranging from East Africa to southern Europe and to the east in the Indian subcontinent. They were primarily browsing animals with a diet mainly consisting of leaves, and they most likely went extinct as forested areas were gradually replaced by open grassland during the latter half of the Neogene, surviving longest in Africa, where they persisted into the Early Pleistocene.