Size
Standing, the Paraceratherium was about 16 feet tall
at the shoulder, which is about two to three feet taller than a
giraffe and about three times as tall as a six foot tall human!
The Paraceratherium was about eight meters or 26 feet
long from head to butt!
The humerus bone (the upper arm bone) is as thick as a grown
mans body and about three and a half feet long. The radius (one
of the forearm bones) is about five feet long (Osborn, 1929).
Other parts of the body such as the skull have been a large
focus for researchers. The skull is about 52 inches or 4.25
feet in length! Other measurements that have been taken include
the width at the base of the back of the skull of 33 cm, width
across the skull at the zygomatic arches or cheek bone of 61 cm
and 33 cm tall at the back of the skull (Osborn, 1929). The skull also had
large nasal incisions that reach far back into the skull
indicating a possible trunk or proboscis. Read more about this
in adaptations. Furthermore, the
Paraceratherium needed a very strong neck to support
the head. The neck vertebrae are very large and wide and
contain many holes and passages to allow for strong muscles and
ligaments to pass through to support the huge head (Osborn 1929).