424 



UNGULATA 



Elephas. 1 Dentition : i ^, c $, dm f , m -| = 26. The incisors 

 variable, but usually of very large size, especially in the male sex, 

 directed somewhat outwards, and curved upwards, without enamel 

 except on the apex before it is worn. The molars composed of 

 numerous flattened enamel -covered plates or ridges of dentine, 

 projecting from a common many-rooted base, surrounded and united 

 together by cement, and extending straight across the crown, with- 

 out (in most forms) any median division into inner and outer 

 columns. The number of plates increases from the anterior to the 

 posterior molar in regular succession, varying in the different species, 

 but the third and fourth (or the last milk-molar and the first true 

 molar), and these only, have the same number of ridges, which 

 always exceeds five. Premolars nearly always wanting. Skull 

 of adult very high and globular. Mandible ending in front in a 

 short, deflected, and spout-like symphysis. Vertebras: C 7, D 19- 

 21, L 3-4, S 4, C 26-33. 



The existing species of the genus differ so much that they have 

 been referred by some writers to distinct genera ; fossil forms show, 

 however, such a transition from the one to the other that it is 

 scarcely possible to regard them even as the representatives of 

 distinct groups. 



In the well-known Indian or Asiatic Elephant (E. indicus} the 

 average number of plates of the six successive molar teeth is 

 expressed by the "ridge-formula," 4, 8, 12, 12, 16, 24. The 

 plates are compressed from before backwards, the anterior and 

 posterior surfaces (as seen in the worn grinding face of the tooth, 



nearly parallel. 

 Ears of moder- 

 ate size. Upper 

 margin of the 

 end of the pro- 

 boscis devel- 

 oped into a 

 distinct finger- 

 like process, 

 much longer 

 than the lower 



margin. Five nails on the fore feet, and four (occasionally five) on 

 the hind feet. 



This species inhabits in a wild state the forest lands' of India, 

 Burma, the Malay Peninsula, Cochin China, Ceylon, and Sumatra. 

 The elephants from the last-named islands, presenting some variations 

 from those of the mainland, have been separated under the name of 

 E. sumatranus, but the distinction has not been satisfactorily estab- 

 1 Linn. Syst. .Nat. 12th ed. vol. i. p. 48 (1766). 



Fio. 181. Grinding surface of a half-worn lower molar of the Indian 

 Elephant (Elephas indicus). d, Dentine ; e, enamel ; c, cement. (From 

 Owen.) 



