4 ELEPHANTS. 



family *, but recent discoveries of remains of early forms of the 

 elephant-group in the Eocene beds of the Libyan Desert in 

 Egypt, have made it possible to trace the history of the 

 elephants also with considerable completeness, and in the 

 present guide a short account of that history is given. 



Among living mammals the elephants are perhaps the most 

 remarkable. Not only do they exceed in size all other living 

 land-animals, but they are further distinguished by the possession 

 of a mobile trunk or proboscis, which is at once a sensitive 

 organ of touch and a most efficient means of grasping objects, 

 both large and small. Furthermore, the structure of their teeth 

 reaches a degree of complication not to be found in any other 

 animals. At the same time, though in many respects so peculiar, 

 in others they retain primitive characters that have been lost in 

 most of the other Ungulata, with which they are usually classed. 

 The most notable of these primitive characters is the presence 

 of the original five toes on each foot, while in most hoofed- 

 animals the feet have become " specialised" by the loss of one 

 or more of the digits. 



It is now proposed to describe some of the principal stages 

 by which the elephants gradually came to be what they are at 

 the present day, and to show that the earliest known forms 

 were much like other primitive hoofed-animals, a condition 

 to which the pigs and tapirs among living mammals perhaps 

 most nearly approach. It will be shown that the earliest 

 known animal belonging to the Proboscidea or elephants was, 

 in fact, not unlike a large pig (see fig. 8), though in some 

 respects an even more primitive creature. From this beginning 

 we can trace a gradual increase in size in the later forms, a 

 gradual development of the trunk or proboscis, first as the 

 upper part of a long snout supported by the elongated lower 

 jaw, afterwards as the familiar movable organ so characteristic 

 of the modern elephants. We can also observe the gradual 

 increase in the size and degree of complication of the griiiding- 

 teeth, accompanied by the complete loss of many of the teeth 



* Casts of specimens showing the gradual " specialisation " of the teeth 

 and feet in the horses are shown in a case in the North Hall. See also 

 pier-case 10 and table-case 5 in Gallery of Fossil Mammals. 



