EVOLUTION OF THE ELEPHANT LULL. 



649 



Hz 



wielding the huge trunk. The development of this feature is beauti- 

 fully shown in individual growth, for the new-born elephant has a 

 relatively long, low skull, the walls of which are slightly thickened, so 

 that the brain chamber fills the skull completely as in most other 

 mammals. During the course of growth, however, the skull walls 

 thicken greatly through the development of the air cells, while the 

 brain cavity increases comparatively little, just as one would predict 

 from the struc- 

 ture of the adult _ o^ 

 skull. 



Of the pre- 

 natal life of the 

 elephant, cover- 

 ing a period of 

 twenty months, 

 we know very lit- 

 tle, but it is rea- 

 sonable to sup- 

 pose that embry- 

 ology would give 

 us much more 

 light upon the 

 development of 

 elephantine fea- 

 tures. Xew-born 

 young are ele- 

 phant-like in 

 every particular 

 with the excep- 

 tion of the skull. 



Paleontologii. 



The g r e a t 

 proof of the evo- 

 lution of a race fig. 6.- 

 of animals is the 



finding in the ancient rocks more and more primitive forms as one 

 recedes in time, until the most archaic type is reached. By the study 

 of such a series of fossils not only may the evolutionary changes be 

 learned, but former geographical distributions, the original home, 

 and the various migrations of the race. "Wliile this matter is treated 

 much more fully in the second and third parts of this paper, a brief 

 summary of the racial history may be given as follows: 



-Sectiou of skull young (Xi), and old ( X i ; ) 

 Flower's Octeology. 



from 



