It seems that at least once a year, news of the “largest dinosaur ever found” makes headlines. That’s because almost all the contenders for the biggest saurian are so fragmentary that settling on an uncontested victor is almost impossible, not to mention that new discoveries are being made all the time. There hasn’t been as much of a debate about fossil mammals. For over a century, Paraceratherium – a 26-foot-long, 15 ton, hornless rhino – has been cited as the biggest of the big beasts. But, according to a new paper by Asier Larramendi, ancient elephants are in close competition for the title of the largest mammals to ever walk the Earth.

Such contests rely