ELEPHANTID^E 



429 



Fio. 185. Grinding surface of upper molar of the 

 Mammoth (Elephas primigenius). c, Cement ; d, dentine ; 

 e, enamel. (From Owen.) 



"ridge-formula" as 4, 8, 12, 12, 16, 24. Dr. Leith Adams, work- 

 ing from more abundant materials, has shown, however, that the 

 number of ridges of each 



tooth, especially those at c <?. p 



the posterior end of the ^---^J^zSS^IISJfJflPi 



series, is subject to very ^/'^^^^^^jmm 'II W 1 

 great individual variation, 

 ranging in each tooth of 

 the series within the fol- 

 lowing limits : 3 to 4, 6 

 to 9, 9 to 12, 9 to 15, 

 14 to 16, 18 to 27, ex- 

 cluding the small plates 

 called talons at each end 

 of the tooth. Besides these 



variations in the number of ridges or plates of which each tooth is 

 composed, the thickness of the enamel varies so much as to have 

 given rise to a distinction between a " thick-plated " and a " thin- 

 plated " variety the latter being most prevalent among the speci- 

 mens from the Arctic regions, and most distinctively characteristic 

 of the species. From the specimens with thick enamel plates 

 the transition to the other species or varieties mentioned above, 

 including E. indicus, is almost imperceptible. 



The bones of the skeleton generally more resemble those of the 

 Indian Elephant than of any other known species, but the skull 

 differs in the narrower summit, narrower temporal fossae, and more 

 prolonged incisive sheaths required to support the roots of the 

 enormous tusks. Among the external characters by which the 

 Mammoth was distinguished from either of the existing species of 

 Elephant was the dense clothing, not only of long coarse outer hair, 

 but also of close woolly under hair, of a reddish-brown colour, 

 evidently in adaptation to the colder climate which it inhabited. 

 This character, for a knowledge of which we are indebted to the 

 well-preserved remains found in Northern Siberia, is also represented 

 in the rude but graphic drawings of prehistoric age found in caverns 

 in the south of France. 1 In size different individuals varied con- 

 siderably, but the average height does not appear to have exceeded 

 that of either of the existing species of Elephant. 



The geographical range of the Mammoth was very extensive. 

 There is scarcely a county in England in which some of its remains 

 have not been found either in alluvial deposits of gravel or in 

 caverns, and numbers of its teeth are from time to time dredged 



1 The best known of these is the etching upon a portion of tusk found in the 

 cave of La Madelaine in the Dordogne, figured in Lartet and Christy's Reliquice 

 Aquitanicce, and in many other works bearing on the subject of the antiquity of 



