Vol. 35, pp. 97-102 September .10, 1922 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON SOME EXTINCT 



ELEPHANTS. 



BY OLIVER P. HAY. 



Professor Henry F. Osborn has recently (Amer. Mus. Novi- 

 tates, No. 41, July 8, 1922) issued a paper in which he deals with 

 the Pleistocene elephants of North America. I venture to dis- 

 cuss his important conclusions. 



Professor Osborn takes up first Elephas columbi and announces 

 that the real E. columbi is not the animal that we have been de- 

 scribing under this name. Inasmuch as the elephant which has 

 hitherto borne this honorable title is one well known and widely 

 distributed, it is imperative that the name shall not be disturbed 

 except on evidence that can not reasonably be disputed. I 

 believe that such evidence has not been presented. 



In the American Museum is a lower hindermost molar 

 (No. 13707) found at Charleston, South Carolina, which Pro- 

 fessor Osborn has made the "neotype" of E. columbi (his fig. 

 3 B). This tooth is said to have in its unworn condition 16 

 plates, of which only 8 had come into use. With this tooth a 

 plaster cast of Falconer's imperfect type of the species is com- 

 pared and identified as belonging to the same species. A draw- 

 ing (Osborn's fig. 1) purports to represent the type tooth re- 

 stored. Professor Osborn therefore restricts the name E. 

 columbi to a form whose lower hindermost molars have only 16 

 or 17 plates and not more than 6 plates in 100 mm. He further 

 concludes that this species is closely related to or identical with 

 Elephas imperator. 



Now, the fact is that the "neotype " is a much-worn tooth and 

 does not represent the original number of plates; some are cer- 



20— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. 35, 1922. (97) 



