Titanotherium Tooth

Titanotherium, aka Bronotherium, was the second largest mammal which lived during the Eocene era about 50 million years ago. This image shows the tooth in relation to the front molar of an adult mastodon. The Titantotherium was indeed a big mammal but a relatively harmless plant eater. Grasses did not evolve until the Oligocene era millions of years later. Like all early mammals the Titantotherium ate the tough leaves and branches of trees and shrubs. For this reason, like the mastodon which ate a similar diet, their teeth when found are usually heavily worn like this example. Most plant eating mammals of the era had high sharp crested molars. It was ten of millions of years later and after the evolution of grasses the flat surface molar like those found in horse and mammoth are to be found.