Rhinos are large and intimidating herbivores with big horns and thick skin. They use their horns to defend themselves, and their skin is their armor. Although they have poor eyesight, their other senses make up for it. They have rotating ears to detect even the quietest sounds. Different sounds and ear positions have different meanings for rhinos. Their large nose picks up on scents of its predators from far away. Easily frightened, these mammals will charge at almost anything. They have even been known to charge termite mounds! Weighing well over a ton and measuring over five feet high at their shoulder, rhinos are the largest land mammal after the elephant. Despite their size, rhinos have been clocked at thirty miles per hour. Since rhinos live mainly solitary lives, they entertain themselves by wallowing in mud and coating their skin to protect it from the sun as well as to cool off on a hot summer day.

Fun Facts: The horn closest to a rhino's mouth can grow taller than the height of a dining room chair. 

Zoological Name: Diceros bicornis

Conservation Status: Critically Endangered

Primary Habitat: Grassland

Global Home: Africa

Rhinos are large and intimidating herbivores with big horns and thick skin. They use their horns to defend themselves, and their skin is their armor. Although they have poor eyesight, their other senses make up for it. They have rotating ears to detect even the quietest sounds. Different sounds and ear positions have different meanings for rhinos. Their large nose picks up on scents of its predators from far away. Easily frightened, these mammals will charge at almost anything. They have even been known to charge termite mounds! Weighing well over a ton and measuring over five feet high at their shoulder, rhinos are the largest land mammal after the elephant. Despite their size, rhinos have been clocked at thirty miles per hour. Since rhinos live mainly solitary lives, they entertain themselves by wallowing in mud and coating their skin to protect it from the sun as well as to cool off on a hot summer day.

Fun Facts: The horn closest to a rhino's mouth can grow taller than the height of a dining room chair. 

Zoological Name: Diceros bicornis

Conservation Status: Critically Endangered

Primary Habitat: Grassland

Global Home: Africa

African Elephant

A long trunk, tough tusks and big ears are bold features of this lowly leaf-eater.

African elephants are the largest of the elephant species, making them the largest land animal. They have four toes on the forefeet and five toes on the hind feet. African elephants live in large clans that splinter off into smaller families. The oldest and largest female is the matriarch who leads the others in the endless search for food and water. Elephants spend as much as sixteen hours a day searching for enough grasses, tree limbs, fruits, and vines. Elephants have a tough but flexible layer of grayish skin, long trunks, and twin ivory tusks. They use their remarkably flexible trunks to communicate with each other through touch and smell. Baby elephants nurse for up to five years. Females stay with their mothers until they're ready to have calves and start their own families. Bull calves stay with their mothers for up to twelve years, but then they break away to live with other males in 'bachelor' herds.

Fun Facts: Elephants can consume over five hundred pounds of food per day.

Zoological Name: Loxodonta africana

Conservation Status: Near Threatened

Primary Habitat: Grassland

Global Home: Africa

African elephants are the largest of the elephant species, making them the largest land animal. They have four toes on the forefeet and five toes on the hind feet. African elephants live in large clans that splinter off into smaller families. The oldest and largest female is the matriarch who leads the others in the endless search for food and water. Elephants spend as much as sixteen hours a day searching for enough grasses, tree limbs, fruits, and vines. Elephants have a tough but flexible layer of grayish skin, long trunks, and twin ivory tusks. They use their remarkably flexible trunks to communicate with each other through touch and smell. Baby elephants nurse for up to five years. Females stay with their mothers until they're ready to have calves and start their own families. Bull calves stay with their mothers for up to twelve years, but then they break away to live with other males in 'bachelor' herds.

Fun Facts: Elephants can consume over five hundred pounds of food per day.

Zoological Name: Loxodonta africana

Conservation Status: Near Threatened

Primary Habitat: Grassland

Global Home: Africa

African elephants are the largest of the elephant species, making them the largest land animal. They have four toes on the forefeet and five toes on the hind feet. African elephants live in large clans that splinter off into smaller families. The oldest and largest female is the matriarch who leads the others in the endless search for food and water. Elephants spend as much as sixteen hours a day searching for enough grasses, tree limbs, fruits, and vines. Elephants have a tough but flexible layer of grayish skin, long trunks, and twin ivory tusks. They use their remarkably flexible trunks to communicate with each other through touch and smell. Baby elephants nurse for up to five years. Females stay with their mothers until they're ready to have calves and start their own families. Bull calves stay with their mothers for up to twelve years, but then they break away to live with other males in 'bachelor' herds.

Fun Facts: Elephants can consume over five hundred pounds of food per day.

Zoological Name: Loxodonta africana

Conservation Status: Near Threatened

Primary Habitat: Grassland

Global Home: Africa

With horns above its eyes and claws on its hands, Allosaurus would make a better ally than enemy.

Fun Facts: As a teenager, Allosaurus could gain as much as one tenth its adult body weight.

Zoological Name: Allosaurus

Conservation Status: Extinct

Primary Habitat: Forest

Global Home: North America and Australia

Another meat-eating dinosaur, Allosaurus had a unique skeleton. Instead of having ribs that were attached to other bones in its body, this dinosaur had ribs that were attached to its skin. Its vertebrae were different too; the bones in its back were bulky and heavy. Standing at a height of over sixteen feet and weighing over one ton, this predator was the biggest carnivore around. Even though it had short arms, its hands had sharp claws for catching plant-eating dinosaurs. Often, Allosaurus would hunt together in groups, making it easier to take down their prey. Living into its twenties, Allosaurus was an intelligent and fierce predator.

Over six feet tall, weighing over one ton, bison are intimidating mammals with curved horns. Living in prairies, bison eat an array of plants in keeping with their herbivore diet. Being an herbivore does not change its temperament though; these animals are known to charge and are surprisingly agile for their size. Eating in the morning and evening, bison nap during the day and enjoy wallowing in dust or mud, similar to the rhinoceros. Living together in herds, bison keep watch for wolves and defend cows as well as calves when predators approach.

Apatosaurus had strong legs to support its extended body.

Fun Facts: An Apatosaurus egg was approximately twelve inches wide.

Zoological Name: Apatosaurus

Conservation Status: Extinct

Primary Habitat: Grassland

Global Home: North America

With its pencil-like teeth, this herbivore spent most of its time grazing and swallowing its food whole. Known for having a small head and an even smaller brain, it was still considered to be one of the largest land animals. At ninety feet long and over ten feet tall at the hip, this dinosaur weighed almost forty tons. Its tail alone could reach a length of fifty feet! In terms of age, it would not have been unheard of for an Apatosaurus to celebrate his centennial.