Complex sentence: It is named after the French naturalist Georges Cuvier; it stood 2.7 m (9 ft) tall and looked like a modern elephant except for its spiral-shaped tusks.
Split into simpler sentences: It is named after the French naturalist Georges Cuvier. Alive, species stood, on average, 2.7 m (9 ft) tall and would have superficially resembled like modern elephants with spiral-shaped tusks.