Their fossils have been found from the late Miocene to the Middle Pliocene of Europe, Asia, and Africa, which means many of our ancestors would have had the opportunity to see and hunt them. Lucky for them, these large elephant-like animals preferred fruits and vegetables.
Like the gomphotheres, to which it was not closely related, Tetralophodon had an impressive four tusks and a trunk. They were big and on size with our modern elephants. You and I would come up to their hip bone on average. They were about 2.58–3.45 m (8.5–11.3 ft) tall at the shoulder and up to 10 tonnes in weight, larger than the size of the present Asian elephant, with a long trunk and incisors ranging up to 2 m (6.6 ft) long.