CREATION BY EVOLUTION 



of the lower jaw and to manipulate the food dug up with 

 the lower incisors. Palaeomastodon was about four and a 

 half feet high and seems to have improved or specialized in 

 the habit of digging roots and fleshy vegetables. In these 

 same Oligocene beds of Egypt we find still another and more 

 progressive form, Phiom'ta, which may well be called the 

 "long-jawed mastodon," for the lower jaw is still longer and 

 the neck is still shorter. 



At the beginning of Miocene time there was in Europe a 

 group of long-jawed mastodons closely related to Phiomia. 

 They migrated from Africa to Europe and' increased in size 

 until they were about eight feet high. The lower jaw was 

 as much as six feet long. After reaching Europe these long- 

 jawed Mastodons spread over the continent and migrated to 

 Asia and finally to North America across land that then con- 

 nected the continents. In Pliocene time this form culminated 

 in Tr'dophodon gtganteus, which was almost as large as the 

 later mammoths. In most animals the necic elongates as 

 they increase in size, so that the mouth can be brought to 

 the ground for feeding or drinking, but in Tr'dophodon the 

 neck steadily shortened, and the necessity of reaching the 

 ground has been met by elongating the jaws. The two large 

 shovel-like teetli of the lower jaws indicate that these large 

 forms were still digging roots and fleshy bulbs for food. The 

 upper jaw is not so long, but the two upper tusks are long 

 enough nearly to touch the ground and probably aided the 

 lower tusks in digging and pushing aside the earth. The 

 upper lip must have been correspondingly long. 



This is a critical time in the history of the elephants. The 

 dinotheres, mastodons, mammoths, and elephants of later 

 time all seem to have gone through this long-jawed stage. 

 In the Miocene epoch some of the long-jawed mastodons 

 changed from the habit of digging to that of browsing on 



[234] 



