The Proboscidea (from the Greek  and the Latin proboscis) are a taxonomic order of afrotherian mammals containing one living family, Elephantidae, and several extinct families. This order, first described by J. Illiger in 1811, encompasses the trunked mammals. Later proboscideans are distinguished by tusks and long, muscular trunks; these features are less developed or absent in early proboscideans. Proboscideans may have produced the largest land mammals of all time in the form of Palaeoloxodon namadicus and Mammut borsoni, which weighed around 24 tons and reached shoulder heights of over , surpassing several sauropod dinosaurs.