Paraceratherium was a hornless rhinoceros, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals that has ever existed. The genus lived during most of the Oligocene epoch (34–23 million years ago); its remains have been found across Eurasia between China and the Balkans. Its weight is estimated to have been 15 to 20 tonnes (33,000 to 44,000 lb); the shoulder height was about 4.8 metres (15.7 feet), and the length about 7.4 metres (24.3 feet). The legs were long and pillar-like. The long neck supported a skull that was about 1.3 metres (4.3 ft) long. It had large, tusk-like incisors and a nasal incision that suggests it had a prehensile upper lip or trunk. The lifestyle of Paraceratherium may have been similar to that of large mammals such as elephants and modern rhinoceroses. It was a browser, eating mainly leaves, soft plants, and shrubs. It lived in habitats ranging from arid deserts with scattered trees to subtropical forests.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraceratherium

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1959:

Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, one of the best selling and most critically acclaimed jazz recordings of all time, was released. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kind_of_Blue

1969:

Hurricane Camille struck the Mississippi coast of the United States, killing 259 people and causing $1.42 billion in damages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Camille

1999:

A 7.6 Mw earthquake struck northwestern Turkey, killing more than 17,000 people and leaving approximately half a million people homeless. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_%C4%B0zmit_earthquake

2009:

A turbine at Russia's Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam in Khakassia broke apart violently, flooding the power station, causing widespread power failures and killing 75 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Sayano-Shushenskaya_power_station_accident

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

fatberg: A large accumulation of fat and discarded toiletries which clogs sewers. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fatberg

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Religion now had to have its compartment, almost its social place. The frontier had ceased to exist. And the religions it had bred were beginning slowly to die. In the old days, when men, often of little education, had needed only to declare themselves ministers, people would have seen themselves reflected in the expounders of the Word. This quality of homespun would have made the religions appear creations of a community, personal and close and inviolable. Now a certain distance was needed.   --V. S. Naipaul https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/V._S._Naipaul