Elephants are the largest land-dwelling mammals on earth. They are brown to dark gray in color and have long, coarse hairs sparsely covering their bodies. They have very thick skin that keeps them cool. Elephant trunks serve as another limb. A fusion of the nose and upper lip, the trunk may contain more than 40,000 muscles that help the elephant use it to gather food and water. They also sport large ears and thick tree-trunk-like legs to support their great weight.