This mandible of Deinotherium bozasi was found during one of the earliest field expeditions to East Turkana in 1969. Deinotheres are an extinct family of specialised browsing proboscideans which have downward protruding tusks in the lower jaw and not in the cranium as in the modern proboscideans.
Deinotheres became extinct in Eurasia during the Pliocene but lingered on in Africa during the Early Pleistocene. In the Turkana Basin the Deinotheriidae are represented by the large East African Deinotherium bozasi. They are believed to have preferred densely vegetated forest habitat, which is probably why they are rare in the more open habitats of the Turkana Basin.
