Deinotherium giganteum

This bony head and palate belong to deinotheres, a family of proboscideans that appeared about 25 million years ago and died out about 1 million years ago. They lived in Africa, Asia and Europe. Deinotherium gigantheum was one of the largest terrestrial mammals. It could measure over 4 metres in height at the shoulder and weigh up to 10 tonnes. 

The long and low skull of the dinotheres is primitive and displays characteristics that are unique and unknown among the other proboscideans. They have no upper incisors and their lower incisors have evolved into tusks. The association of premolars and primitive molars (with two or three crests) visible in the jaw indicates that their teeth were all in use at the same time; this trait is inherited from the first proboscideans that lived 30 million years earlier.

The palate on display here was found at Samaran in the Gers (France). It is an original piece but the skull and mandible are casts of the first head discovered in 1836 at Eppelsheim (Germany). Before this, the species was only known from its molars. The largest known Deinotherium giganteum skeleton is on display in Bucharest (Romania). It is also called Deinotherium gigantissimum or Deinotherium proavum.