660 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



pieces of branches varying from slender twigs to boughs half an inch 

 long " have been found within the ribs of a mastodon together with 

 " more finely divided vegetable matter, like comminuted twigs to the 

 amount of four to six bushels." " Twigs of the existing conifer Thuia 

 occidentalis were identified in the stomach of the New Jersey masto- 

 don, while that of Newburg, New York, contained the boughs of some 

 conifer, spruce or fir, also other not coniferous, decomposed wood. A 

 newspaper account of the finding of the great Otisville mastodon, 

 recently mounted at Yale, says that the region of the stomach con- 

 tained " fresh-looking, very large leaves, of odd form, and blades of 

 strange grass of extreme length and 1 inch to 3 inches in width." 



TRUE ELEPHANTS. 



In order to trace the evolution of the true elephants we must go 

 back once more to the Upper Miocene of southern India to the form 

 known as Mammut latidens. This creature gave rise to a species 

 variously known as Mastodon elephantoides or Stegodon clifti^ for its 

 transitional character is such that authorities differ as to whether it 

 is a mastodon or an elephant. 



Stegodon. 



In Stegodon the molar teeth have more numerous ridges than in 

 the true mastodons, and the name Stegodo)i is given because of the 

 roof-like character of these ridges, the summits of which are sub- 

 divided into five or six small, rounded prominences. There is a thin 

 layer of cement over the enamel in an unworn tooth, but no great 

 accumulation in the intervening valleys as in the elephants. These 

 teeth show how slight the transition is, however, merely a filling of 

 cement to bind the crests together and the elephant tooth is formed. 



Stegodon embraces at least three species, the home of which was 

 central and southern India, though two of them ranged east as far as 

 Japan, then united to the Asiatic continent. Stegodon msigtiis lived 

 into Pliocene times. True elephants, derived from the Stegodonts, 

 existed in India, their remains being found in the Siwalik hills. 



During Pliocene times there existed in Europe two immense ele- 

 phants, known as Elephas ineridionalis and E. antiquiis, each of which 

 lingered on into the c<3oling climate of the Pleistocene. The former, 

 while ranging as far north as England, was more southerly in general 

 distribution and of a size which has probably never been exceeded 

 except possibly by Elephas imperator of North America. A mounted 

 specimen of Elephas meridionalis in the Natural History Museum of 

 the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, France, measures 13 feet and 1 inch 

 at the shoulder, and probably exceeded this in the flesh. The tusks 



