40 MAMMALIA. 



Elephant remains which were said to have been found in the Red 

 Crag, and called special attention to one from Falkenham, 

 which " he had not the slightest doubt " was really from the 

 " Bone-bed " below the Red Crag ; and he was probably correct in 

 referring this specimen to E. meridionalis. 



ELEPHAS MERIDIONALIS, NJBSTI. 



Dr. Falconer (in Lyell's Antiquity of Man, p. 217, 1863, and 

 Pal. Mem., Vol. II., p. 104, 1868) was the first to recognise 

 E. meridionalis in England. The species being especially 

 abundant in the Forest-bed (Mem. Geol. Surv., Vert. Forest 

 Bed, p. 105, 1882). The teeth of-Z meridionalis are characterised 

 by the small height of the crown in proportion to their width, the 

 large size of the enamel plates and their wide separation by broad 

 cement spaces. The enamel itself is extremely thick, smooth, and 

 almost free from crenulations. 



To this species is now referred the tooth from the Red Crag, 

 which Dr. Leith Adams doubtfully placed with E. antiquus (Pal. 

 Soc. Brit. Foss. Elephants, p. 178, 1877-81) and sections of 

 which are to be seen in the York Museum, the British Museum, 

 and the Museum of Practical Geology (Cat. Fos. Mamm. Brit, Mus., 

 Part iv., p. 113, 1886). Dr. Taylor's specimen from the Red 

 Crag of Falkenham ('Brit. Assoc. Rep. for 1873, p. 91, 1874) is 

 included with E. meridionalis ; the plates are wide and far apart, 

 while tne enamel is comparatively smooth and thick, and the 

 crown appears to have been low. The occurrence of teeth, which 

 cannot be separated from those of E. meridionalis, has been 

 recorded by the Rev. O. Fisher (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. 

 XLIV, p. 818, 1888) from Dewlish, Dorset ; thus indicating the 

 presence of Pliocene beds in Dorset. 



I am very doubtful whether the tooth from the Norwich Crag 

 of Thorpe, noticed by Dr. Leith Adams (Pal. Soc., p. 196), or 

 that in Mr. Fitch's collection from same horizon, alluded to by 

 Mr. Prestwich (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. XXVII., p. 456, 

 1871) should be referred to this species. 



Elephas meridionalis occurs in England in the Forest-bed 

 series of many localities, in the Nodule-bed of the Red Crag of 

 Suffolk, in the remarkable deposit at Dewlish, Dorset, and 

 possibly in the Norwich Crag of Norfolk. On the continent the 

 species is found in the Pliocene of the Val d'Arno, the Auvergne, 

 and at Saint Prest ; it has also been recorded from North Africa 

 (Thomas, Mem. Soc, Ge'ol. Fr., Ser. 3, Vol. III., Part ii., p. 20, 

 1884). 



Some vertebrae dredged off Clacton, and possibly of Pleistocene 

 age, have been referred to this species by Dr. Leith Adams (Pal 

 Soc., p. 210). 



