VERTEBRATA: MAMMALIA. 733 



that the curved tusks were used either in digging up roots, or 

 in mooring the animal to the banks of rivers, for it was prob- 

 ably aquatic or semi-aquatic in its habits. The whole of the 

 praemolars and molars were in use at one time, and their 

 crowns are crossed by strong transverse ridges, which give them 

 a marked Tapiroid character, while in some respects they 

 resemble the teeth of the Mastodons. It is placed by De 

 Blainville in the Sirenia, being regarded as a Dugong with 

 tusk-like lower incisors ; but this view has been rendered un- 

 tenable by the discovery of limb-bones of a distinctly Pro- 

 boscidean type. 



As regards the distribution of the Proboscidea in time, the 

 order came into existence in the Miocene period, where it is 

 represented by all its three sections, Deinotherium, Mastodon, 

 and Elephas. 



The genus Deinotherium, as just mentioned, is exclusively 

 confined to the Miocene period. 



The genus Mastodon is characteristic in Europe of the Mio- 

 cene and Pliocene ; but in North America it is represented in 

 the Post-pliocene, and it occurs also in deposits of the same 

 age in South America. 



No Elephant has yet been discovered in the Miocene rocks 

 of Europe, but six species are known from Miocene (Pliocene ?) 

 strata in India. In the Pliocene period Europe possessed its 

 Elephants (viz., JE. priscus and JS. meridionalis) ; but the best 

 known of the extinct Elephants, as well as the most modern, is 

 the Mammoth (E. primigenius}. This enormous animal is now 

 wholly extinct, but it formerly abounded in the northern parts of 

 Asia and over the whole of Europe. It occurred also in Britain, 

 and unquestionably existed in the earlier portion of the human 

 period, its remains having been found in a great number of 

 instances in connection with human implements. From its 

 great abundance in Siberia, it might have been safely inferred 

 that the Mammoth was able to endure a much colder climate 

 than either of the living elephants. This inference, however, 

 has been rendered a certainty by the discovery of the body 

 of more than one Mammoth embedded in the frozen soil of 

 Siberia. These specimens had been so perfectly preserved 

 that even microscopical sections of some of the tissues could 

 be made; and in one case even the eyes were preserved. 

 From these specimens we know that the body of the Mam- 

 moth was covered with long woolly hair. 



