THE MASTODONS 



s 1145 



In height the skeleton 



that this mastodon lived on till within the human period, 

 stood about twelve feet at the shoulder. 



In the Old World, mastodons disappeared at an earlier date, none being known 

 to have survived the close of the Pliocene period. Remains of several species occur 

 in the Miocene and Pliocene deposits of the Continent, while detached teeth are occa- 

 sionally found in the shelly deposits on the coast of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, 

 locally known as crags. In Northern India there were an extraordinary number of 



TWO SPECIMENS OF MOLAR TEETH OF INDIAN MASTODONS. 



(Natural size.) 



(Both teeth are unworn; and while the upper belongs to M. cautleyi, the lower 

 belongs to M. perimensis. ) 



species of these animals; and among these the broad-toothed mastodon (M. latidens), 

 ranging from India through Burma to Borneo, is the one approaching most closely 

 to the elephants. In some of these Indian mastodons, as in one of those from the 

 English crags, the inner and outer columns of the ridges of the molar teeth are com- 

 pletely separated from one another, and are arranged somewhat alternately; and 

 from the nipple-like form assumed by these columns in the species in question, the 

 generic name of Mastodon takes its origin. 



