428 UNGULATA 



Among the best known extinct Elephants is E. priinigenitis, the 

 Mammoth, 1 very closely resembling the existing Indian species, and 

 one of the most recently extinct and extensively distributed of all 

 the fossil forms. Probably no animal which has not survived to 

 the historic period has left such abundant and well-preserved evi- 

 dence of its former existence. The discovery of immense numbers, 

 not only, as in the case of most extinct creatures, in the form of 

 fragmentary bones and teeth, but often as more or less nearly 

 entire carcases, or "mummies," as they may be called, with the 

 flesh, skin, and hair in situ, in the frozen soil of the tundras of 

 Northern Siberia, has for a long time given great interest to the 

 species, and been the cause of many legendary stories among the 

 natives of the lands in which they occur. Among these one of the 

 most prevailing is that the Mammoth was, or still is, an animal which 

 passes its life habitually in burrows below the surface of the ground, 

 and immediately dies if by any chance it comes into the upper air. 



Of the whole group the Mammoth is in many respects, as in the 

 size and form of the tusks, and especially the characters of the 

 molar teeth, the farthest removed from the primitive Mastodon-like 

 type, while its nearest surviving relative, E. indicus, has retained 

 the slightly more generalised characters of the Mammoth's con- 

 temporaries of more southern climes, E. columbi of America, and 

 E. arftieniacus of the Old World, if, indeed, it can be specifically 

 distinguished from them. 



The tusks or upper incisor teeth were doubtless present in both 

 sexes, but probably of smaller size in the female. In the adult 

 males they often attained the length of from 9 to 10 feet measured 

 along the outer curve. Upon leaving the head they were directed 

 at first downwards and outwards, then upwards and finally inwards 

 at the tips, and generally with a tendency to a spiral form not seen 

 in other species of Elephant. Different specimens, however, present 

 great variations in curve, from nearly straight to an almost com- 

 plete circle. 



It is chiefly by the characters of the molar teeth that the 

 various extinct modifications of the Elephant type are distinguished. 

 Those of the Mammoth (Fig. 185) differ from the corresponding 

 organs of allied species in the great breadth of the crown as 

 compared with the length, the narrowness and close approximation of 

 the ridges, the thinness of the enamel and its straightness, parallel- 

 ism, and absence of " crimping," as seen on the worn surface, or in a 

 horizontal section of the tooth. Dr. Falconer gave the prevailing 



1 The word Mammoth was introduced into the languages of Western Europe 

 about two centuries ago from the Russian, and is thought by Pallas and Norden- 

 skiold to be of Tartar origin, but others, as Witzen, Strahlenburg, and Howorth, 

 have endeavoured to prove that it is a corruption of the Arabic word Behemoth, 

 or great beast. 



