PREHISTORIC ANIMALS 



441 



north, and from specimens found embedded in the ice oi 

 Siberia we know that it had a woolly covering, about twenty- 

 five centimeters long, of a reddish brown color, interspersed 

 with somewhat longer, coarser black hairs. The mammoth 

 stood nearly three meters high and was about five meters long, 

 exclusive of the huge tusks, which were curved almost into a 

 circle. In contrast to this species are the little elephants of 

 Malta, which lived in the Pleistocene ; one species, Elephas 

 ntelitensis, was about a meter and a third high, another, Elephas 

 falconeri, only about seventy-five to ninety centimeters. The 

 mastodon, Mastodon giganteus, differed from the elephant 

 chiefly in the form of its teeth. It appeared in Europe and 

 Asia in the Miocene and became extinct in the Pliocene ; it 

 appeared in North America in the Pliocene and lived through 

 the Pleistocene, ranging from Canada to Texas; it was slightl) 

 larger than the mammoth, and its tusks measured over three 

 and a half meters in length. 



In the Rodentia we find a large, beaver-like animal in the 

 North American Pleistocene, called Castoroides ohioensis ; it 

 was much larger than any existing rodent, being a meter and 

 a half in length. 



There are several Post-tertiary Carnivora which resemble 

 existing species very minutely and may be identical with them ; 

 the chief difference lies in the greater size of the older individ- 

 uals. The two most important bears were Ursus priscus, which 

 was probably the same as the present grizzly bear, Ursus ferox 

 (or horribilis), and the cave bear, Ursus spelams y whose remains 

 occur chiefly in cavern deposits; it was larger than any of our 

 present bears. The European cave lion, Felis spelcea, was prob- 

 ably the same as our Felis leo. Both the cave bear and the 

 cave lion were contemporaneous with the woolly rhinoceros, the 

 Irish elk, the wild bull, and the mammoth. 



Among the Primates, remains of New World monkeys have 

 been found in South America only, in the Pleistocene forma- 

 tions. The Old World monkeys, as we have already noted, 

 appeared much earlier, in the Tertiary. Human remains, in the 

 form of bones or manufactured implements, are found in various 

 Pleistocene deposits and are often associated with the bones of 

 other Mammalia living at that time. 



