The African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana africana) is a big animal. Standing ten feet at the shoulder and weighing 13,000 pounds (on average), these tuskers are the largest land animal alive today.
However, do you know that its ancestor, the Straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) was even bigger! Remains of this species suggest that a mature bull measured 13 feet at the shoulder and weighed 29,000 pounds (imagine a semi-truck and empty trailer with knees!).
The Straight-tusked elephant once roamed temperate forests around the Mediterranean sea. The species was likely hunted out by humans and did not survive the end of the last ice age.
Footnote 1: Listen to the sound of creation groaning (Rom 8:22-24).
Footnote 2: an 8' tusk from a Straight-tusked elephant was found in 2022 in southern Israel. It is the largest complete fossil tusk ever found in the Near East. (see the link here: https://www.cbsnews.com/.../straight-tusked-elephant.../)