--- title: Mammal giants of the past: Paraceratherium, Diprotodon, the giant beaver and Gigantopithecus — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Mammal giants of the past: Paraceratherium, Diprotodon, the giant beaver and Gigantopithecus», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Picture an animal so tall that a giraffe could almost walk under its belly. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Mammal giants of the past: Paracerathe… # Mammal giants of the past: Paraceratherium, Diprotodon, the giant beaver and Gigantopithecus Lesson 384 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 19 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/0/) — Picture an animal so tall that a giraffe could almost walk under its belly. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/1/) — That was Paraceratherium, a hornless relative of rhinos that browsed on treetops in Asia, including China, about 30 million years ago. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/2/) — Other mammal giants came later: a wombat-like animal the size of a hippo in Australia, a beaver as big as a black bear in North America, and a giant ape in the forests of southern China. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/3/) — A big body keeps heat in, can live on poor food like twigs and is hard for predators to kill. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/4/) — But it also needs huge amounts of food every day. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/5/) — When climates changed, forests shrank and, in some places, people arrived and hunted, so many giants died out. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/6/) — Today's African elephant is the last of many giant land mammals. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/7/) — Often scientists have only teeth or a few bones, so they say honestly what they know and what is still a guess, like the true height of the giant ape. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/8/) — Paraceratherium was a hornless relative of rhinos in Asia, including China, about 30 million years ago, as heavy as three or four elephants and one of the biggest land mammals ever. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/9/) — Like rhinos, Paraceratherium walked on three toes on each foot; a horse has one toe on each foot and an elephant five inside its round foot. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/10/) — Diprotodon was the biggest marsupial ever, a pouched relative of wombats the size of a hippo, living in Australia until about 40,000 years ago. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/11/) — Diprotodon was still alive when people reached Australia, and whether people helped it die out is still argued. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/12/) — The name Diprotodon means two forward teeth: two big front teeth stuck forward from its lower jaw, good for biting off plants. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/13/) — The giant beaver of North America was about two metres long, lived until about 12,000 years ago and is reported to have eaten mostly water plants, so it may not have built dams. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/14/) — In 1935 a scientist found huge ape teeth sold as dragon teeth in Hong Kong shops, and caves in southern China later gave many more. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/15/) — Gigantopithecus is known only from teeth and a few lower jaws, so its size is a guess; it was an orangutan relative often drawn about three metres tall. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/16/) — Gigantopithecus died out a few hundred thousand years ago when its forests changed and fruit grew scarce, and there is no good evidence it lives on as a Yeti or Bigfoot. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/17/) — Deinotherium was an elephant relative with two tusks growing from its lower jaw, pointing down and back; nobody is sure what they were for. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/384-mammal-giants-of-the-past-paraceratherium-diprotodon-the-giant-beaver-and-gigantopithecus/18/) — A big body keeps heat in and is hard to attack, but it needs a lot of food, and giants have few babies. - ← previous: [Giant reptiles of the past: Titanoboa, Sarcosuchus, Deinosuchus and giant tortoises](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/383-giant-reptiles-of-the-past-titanoboa-sarcosuchus-deinosuchus-and-giant-tortoises/) - next →: [Ice Age Ukraine and Europe: cave bears, cave lions, the Siberian unicorn and mammoth-bone houses](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/385-ice-age-ukraine-and-europe-cave-bears-cave-lions-the-siberian-unicorn-and-mammoth-bone-houses/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)