7. Deinotherium
At times known as the ‘hoe tusker’, the Deinotherium was a creature that lived during the Middle Miocene era and died sometime during the Early Pleistocene era. It’s also known as being the third largest land animal to have ever existed, standing about 15 feet tall and weighing over 15.4 tons. The creature looks much like present-day elephants, the only real difference being that they had a shorter trunk and the tusks were attached to the lower jaw, not the upper jaw like today’s elephants. Deinotherium fossils have been found all over, mainly in Europe, Asia, and Africa. After these fossils were found, many believe that the large teeth and tusks were the catalysts to Greek beliefs of giant archaic creatures.