April 21, 192 1] 



NATURE 



2^39 



central cases. They cover the complete evolution 

 of the Proboscidea, from the early stages in the 

 life of this great order described by Andrews in 

 the genera Phiomia and Palaeomastodon from the 

 FayCim region of northern Africa. This collection 

 carries us back into an early period in the Age of 

 Mammals, the Oligocene, for it has been deemed 

 wise to present here the entire history of the 

 evolution of the Proboscidea, which, taken alto- 

 gether, is the most majestic line of evolution thus 

 far discovered. It is possible that the ancestors 

 of man were the companions of the proboscidean 

 race from the beginning, because the Proplio- 

 pithecus, the companion of the Palaeomastodon in 

 the Fayum, is at least structurally ancestral to 

 the higher apes and man — in other words, it is a 

 possible prehuman link, for it is conceivable that 



the true Mastodon americanus of the eastern 

 American forests in the late Pleistocene. This 

 race reaches its climax in the massive M. ameri- 

 canus, represented in the famous specimen known 

 as the Warren mastodon, which was presented to 

 the museum by the late J. Pierpont Morgan. 

 Nearby is the complete skeleton of the American 

 woolly mammoth, Elephas primigenius, above 

 which towers the partial skeleton of the imperial 

 mammoth, E. imperator. 



The south-west quarter of the hall is devoted 

 to the Cope Pampean Collection, chiefly consist- 

 ing of mounted skeletons of the ground sloth 

 family and the glyptodonts, and of th? sabre- 

 toothed tiger of the Pampean region. With these 

 are casts of the skeletons of three other char- 

 acteristic South American animals, the Macrau- 



Fig. 4. — Contemporaneously with the disappearance of the last Glacial period in Europe, a highly evolved race in no respect inferior to modern man 

 entered that continent from the east and drove out or exterminated the Neanderthal race, of which they were both the mental and physical 

 superiors. Their cultural capacity is indicated not alone by their physiognomy and the cubic content of their brain, but has also been 

 demonstrated by the handiwork and especially the artistic productions wliich they have left in the caves of southern Europe. The Palaeolithic 

 murals and sculptures in relief found on the walls of limestone grottoes in France and Spain indicate gieater artistic sense and ability than have 

 been found among any other uncivilised people. The mural above, painted by Knight for the Hall of the Age of Man, represents four Cr6- 

 Magnon artists at work on the famous procession of mammoths as found in the cave of Font-de-Gaume, Dordogne, France. The two 

 half-kneeliiig figures are holding lamps made of hoUowed-out stones. The artist standing half erect is engaged in incising the outlines of a 

 mammoth on the limestone wall with a sharp flint ; the other artist is laying on the colours, employing a shoulder-bone for a pallet. The kneeling 

 figure is preparing colours from red or yellow ochre. The clothed man to the left is a chieftain who carries a b&ton de comntandement on his 

 staff as an insignia of his rank 



from such an animal the anthropoids and human 

 lines diverged. 



The higher Proboscidea include two complete 

 skeletons and several skulls of the superb race of 

 long-jawed mastodons which have recently been 

 shown by the studies of Dr. Matsumoto to be the 

 true descendants of Phiomia of northern Egypt 

 through the classic narrow-toothed mastodon, 

 M. angustidens, of Central France in Miocene 

 times. This very vigorous and successful race, 

 starting from Egypt, reached North America at 

 the close of the Miocene, spread all over ' 

 the present region of the United States ; during 

 Pliocene times, and then became entirely extinct. 



It now appears that the Egyptian form of Palaeo- 

 mastodon is, as its happily chosen name indicates, 

 actually an ancient mastodon which gave rise to 

 NO. 2686, VOL. 107] ' 



chenia, Toxodon, and Hippidium.' To demonstrate 

 the American migration of both the sloths and 

 r'-lvptodonts into North America in late Pliocene 

 times, there is also a series of North American 

 ground sloths and glyptodonts, chiefly derived 

 from the explorations of the museum in Texas 

 and Mexico, and from the region of the Rancho 

 La Brea tarpools of southern California, where 

 the sloths occurred in very great abundance. 



This scheme of arrangement whereby interefst 

 is centred in the fauna fits in with that 

 of the remainder of the hall showing the 

 wonderful climax in the Age of Mammals, 

 when a similar mammalian fauna covered the tem- 



' The valuable collections obtained from the Miocene of Patagonia and 

 certain early Tertiary North American fossil mammals are aUo assembled 

 here as affording li^ht on the origin and early history of this mweiiaus 

 Pampean fauna of South America.' '^r* jftVr,- -, ' '■ 



