Deinotherioidea

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Deinotherioidea (superorder Paenungulata, order Proboscidea) An extinct suborder (sometimes classed as a full order) of elephant-like animals which lived in the Miocene and Pliocene of Eurasia and survived, in tropical Africa, into the Pleistocene. Early forms were smaller, but later forms larger, than modern elephants. The proboscis was long, upper tusks were absent, the lower tusks were large, curving downward and sometimes to the rear. The suborder is considered to be divergent from the evolutionary path leading to modern elephants.