Weighing in at a staggering 14,000 pounds, the African elephant is the largest land animal on Earth and a living battering ram wrapped in two-inch-thick hide. Capable of flipping cars and toppling trees on a whim, its intelligence rivals that of primates—complete with mourning rituals and long-term memory. Cross one and it will remember your face forever.

The 40-foot, 9-ton apex predator that ruled the Cretaceous period with the strongest bite force ever measured in a terrestrial animal—12,800 pounds of bone-crushing fury. Its banana-sized teeth could pulverize anything that walked, ran, or made the fatal mistake of existing nearby. Sixty-six million years of extinction haven't diminished its reputation one bit.