664 



ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



ancestral hairy condition atavistically developed in later types when 

 necessitated by cold. A similar development is seen in the Manchii- 

 rian tiger, in form and markings precisely like its tropical cousin, the 

 sleek Bengal tiger, but with a long, thick fur which defies the cold 

 of a climate as severe as that of New England. 



The hairy mammoth was circumpolar in distribution, ranging from 

 Europe across the north of Asia as far as 70° north latitude to the 

 eastern part of the United States, its southern limit overlapping the 

 northern range of Elephas columbi. 



MODERN ELEPHANTS. 



The African elephants are the more primitive in the character of 

 the teeth with their broad lozenge-shaped lamellae, unless, as has 

 recently been suggested, they are in this respect degenerate. The 

 African forms included by some authorities under the genus Loxo- 



donta have recently been divided into 

 four species. They are distinguished 

 from their cousins of India by the 

 contour of the head, the greater size of 

 the ears, greater development of the 

 tusks, and the presence of two figure- 

 like processes at the tip of the pro- 

 boscis instead of but one. African 

 elephants reach a greater size than do 

 those of India, attaining a height of 

 12 to 13 feet at the shoulders and a 

 weight of over 7 tons. 



The Indian elephant includes but 

 one species, E. indicus^ of which there 

 are, however, several Avell-marked 

 castes or breeds, varying greatly in commercial value. In size the 

 Indian elephant rarely reaches 11 feet, averaging about 9 for the 

 males. The high, convex forehead gives the Indian elephant a some- 

 what nobler, more intellectual cast of countenance than its African 

 cousin, but this character is due solely to the greater development of 

 the air cells in the skull. 



Dinothe7'iu7n. 



In the Miocene of Eurojie, though ranging up into the Pliocene 

 of Asia, is a curious aberrant type, evidentl}^ a proboscidian though 

 formerly classed with the Sirenia. This form is Dinotherium^ and 

 must have been derived from some very early genus, certainly not 

 later than Palceomastodon. The teeth differ from those of the ele- 

 phants in their greater number and in their mode of succession, being 



Fig. 



25. — Jaw of Dionotherium ; 

 after Kaup. 



