THE EVOLUTION OF THE ELEPHANT." 



[With 2 plates.] 



By Richard S. Lull, Pli. D. 



Associate curator in vertebrate paleontology, Peabody Museum of Natural 



History, Yale University. 



Part I. 



The modern word elephant, which may be used comprehensively 

 to include all of the proboscidians, comes from the Greek eAe'^a? 

 {iXecpavr), SL word first used in the literature by Herodotus, the father 

 of history. The origin of the word is somewhat a matter of doubt, 

 certain authorities deriving it from the Hebrew " eleph," an ox ; 

 others from the Hebrew " ibah," Sanskrit " ibhas," an elephant, 

 comparing this with the Latin " ebur," meaning ivory. Another 

 Sanskrit word is " hastin," elephant, from " hasta," a hand or trunk. 

 Thus the ancients emphasized the three characteristics of the pro- 

 boscidians, size, the tusks, and the trunk, which are the most strik- 

 ing features of the most remarkable of beasts. 



The proboscidians may be defined as large, trunk-bearing mam- 

 mals, with pillar-like limbs, short neck and huge head, often with 

 protruding ivory tusks, the modified upper and, in earlier, extinct 

 types, the lower incisor teeth. The proboscidians constitute a sub- 

 order of the great group of ungulates or hoofed mammals, yet have 

 their nearest living allies in creatures strangely remote in size, form, 

 and environment from the lordly elephant, for the paleontologist, 

 in his ardent search for family trees other than his own, often dis- 

 closes some seemingly paradoxical relationships which completely 

 upset the older ideas of classification. Explorations have recently 

 brought to light evidence to show that the sea-living Sirenia, whose 

 American representative is the Florida manatee, can claim close rela- 

 tionship with the elephants, though nothing could be more unlike 

 than the proboscidians and the fish-like Sirenia with broad swim- 

 ming tail, front limbs reduced to flippers, and no hind limbs at all. 



" Reprinted by permission, after author's revision, from the American Journal 

 of Science, Vol. XXV, March, 1908. 



641 



