Paraceratherium

When nature has day dreams, it goes to town on new designs.

The Paraceratherium, browsing on trees growing in an ancient desert.
Charcoal-plated skin makes it seem a towering, armoured beast,
giraffe neck and legs thick as elms with cloven feet,
rhinoceros face devoid of any horn, top lip grasping at leaves.

A beast destined for the plains mimics its forest-dwelling friends,
over-engineered and feared, no smart hunter will try their luck.

Someway down the line the great-great-great-great grandchildren
of this titan will shed his neck and sprout horns,
content to graze on the plains instead of reaching their ancestor's heights.