Brutus the Megacerops

Brutus the Megacerops - As for the critter, this is a Megacerops coloradensis. Megacerops has had many names, in many genera, such as Brontotherium, Titanotherium, Brontops, and Menodus, because of differences in the nasal horns, but now it's thought the variation had to do with age and sex. The largest males had likely the longest horns, the tips flattening out in some. Megacerops may have looked like a rhinoceros, but was more closely related to horses. Native Americans had folk tales about them, saying they were giant horses living in the sky, falling down in thunderstorms, indeed, their crashing bones causing the sound of thunder. This is because their bones often washed open and thus were easy to notice after heavy storms.

Megacerops was the largest mammal of its time, reaching 2.5 m at the shoulder hump, and likely weighing a couple of tons or more. The group as a whole, the Brontotheres (or Titanotheres), existed mainly in North America, with some species in Asia also, from the late Palaeocene to the early Oligocene. At that point over most of the world the climate became drier and grasses multiplied on the plains. Their teeth couldn't deal with the coarse grasses.