PROBOSCIDEA. 567 



Andrews,* about the size of a tapir, with a third incisor and premolari- 

 form canine, and Saghatherium Andrews and Beadnell. j These forms 

 are similar to those now existing, and present all the peculiar features 

 of specialisation of the order. The skull of a fossil species, Pliohyrax 

 (Procavia) kruppii, is known from the ^Miocene of Samos, and recently 

 Amegliino has described remains from the Cretaceoxis and Lower Eocene 

 of Patagonia under the names pf Archaeohyrax, Argyrohyrax, Plagiarthrus. 



Order 7. PROBOSCIDEA. J 



Large pachyderms with long proboscis which is used as a pre- 

 hensile organ ; with large lophodont grinding teeth, and tusks in 

 the premaxillae or mandible. 



The peculiar gait of elephants is due to the fact that the legs 

 are not bent at the elbow and knee as is the case in most quad- 

 rupeds but as in Dinoceras and Titanotheriura depend vertically 

 from the body. They walk with the tips of their toes on the 

 ground, but the weight is mainly carried by a great cushion on 

 the posterior surface of the digits, so that they may be described 

 as semiplantigrade. The toes are not separate externally but 

 their termination is marked by nails, which are not, however, 

 always as numerous as the digits. 



The body is covered by a thick skin which in the living forms 

 is only sparsely covered with hairs. The head is enormous, 

 being short and deep, and the skull is swollen by air-chambers 

 in the frontal, parietal, premaxillary, maxillary, nasal, palatal, 

 and other bones. All these air-spaces communicate with the 

 nasal passages. The apertures of the external nostrils are 

 placed at the end of a long trunk, which is extremely mobile and 



* Andrews, Geoloqical Magazine, 4, 10, 1903, p. 341. 



t Andrews and Beadnell, A preliminary note on some new mammals 

 from the Upper Eocene of Egypt, Cairo, 1902. - r> u ■ 



i Kaup, Description d'ossem. de foss. Mammiferes, 1S32-35, Cah. i. and 

 iv • Actpn der Urwe.lt, 1841, 1. I.arlet, Snr la dentition des Prob. foss. 

 etc.. Bull. Soc. Geol. France, 1859, 16. Falconer and Cautlej^ Fauna 

 antiqua sivalensis, 1846. Falconer, On the species of Mastodon and 

 Elephant, fossil in Gt. Britain; Pt. 1, Masto<lon, Pt. 2, FAephant, Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc., 13, 1857, p. 308; and 21, 1865, p. 253 Falconer, 

 Palaeontological Memoirs, 2, 1868. H. v. Meyer, Studien iib. d. Genus 

 Mastodon, Palaeontopraphica, 1867, 17. Weinsheimer, TJeber Dmothcrium 

 giganteum, Palaeont. Abh. 1, 1883, p. 207. Forbes, Viscera P.Z.^., 

 1879 p 420 Adams, Monograph of the British Fossil Elephants, 6 

 pts ' Palaeontographical Soc, 1877-8. Cope, The Proboscidea, Amer. 

 Nat 23 1889. Ameghino, Pyrotheiium, Bnl. Inst. Geograf. Argenttno, 

 15, 1895', 18, 1897. Lydekker, Cat. Foss. Mam B M., 1-5' 188o-7. 

 Andrews, C. W., Evolution of the Proboscidea, Phil. Trans., 196, 1904, 

 p. 99. 



