Daily Dose of Prehistory Revival 31: Uintatherium anceps

Uintatherium anceps, meaning "Beast of the Uinta Mountains", was an extinct species of dinoceratan herbivorous mammal that lived during the Early to Mid Eocene epoch about 56 to 38 million years ago. Like other dinoceratans, Uintatherium was large and robust, measuring 13 feet long, standing 5 feet and 6 inches tall, and weighing up to 2 tons, making it one of the larger animals of the time. Of note was it's strange skull, which was both flat and concave, which was unique to it and a few brontotheres, and also had a large pair of canine teeth that resembled the teeth of sabertooth cats. Males had larger teeth than the females and likely served a dual purpose as defensive weapon against creodonts but also as a way to pluck aquatic plants from marshes. Male Uintatherium also bore 6 ossicones on the top of their skull, which were probably also used for defense as well as sexual display.