ANCESTORS OF ELEPHANTS 



145 



Lastly we have the wonderful series of discoveries made 

 about twelve years ago by Dr. Andrews (of the Natural 

 History Museum) of elephant-like creatures in the upper 

 Eocene of the Fayoum desert in Egypt. Palaeomastodon 

 (the name given by Dr. Andrews to one of them) is a " pig- 

 like " mastodon, with an elongated, bony face, the tusks of 

 moderate size, and the lower jaw not projecting more than 

 a few inches beyond them, so that the proboscis is quite 

 short and rests well on it (Fig. I 8). This animal had six 

 moderate-sized grinders (molars or cheek teeth) on each 



FIG. 18. Head of the ancestral elephant Palaeomastodon as it 

 appeared in life. It shows, as compared with the earlier ancestor, 

 an elongation both of the snout and the lower jaw. The tusk in 

 the upper jaw has increased in size, but is still small as compared 

 with that of later elephants. (After a drawing by Prof. Osborne.) 



side of each jaw in position simultaneously, as may be seen 

 in the complete skull shown in Fig 1 9. Of other teeth it 

 had only the two moderate-sized front tusks above and 

 two very big, chisel-like " incisors " in the front of the 

 lower jaw. Exactly how these were used and for what 

 food no one has yet made out. 



The remains, which finally bring the elephants into line 

 with the ordinary mammals with typical dentition, were 

 discovered also by Dr. Andrews and named " Meri- 



10 



