ELEPHAS. 45 



race which seems especially liable to produce albino forms, 

 the white elephants of Siam and Burma being well known. 



The origin of the other living species of elephant, Elephas 

 ajricanus (fig. 31), is not very clearly known, owing to the want 

 of fossil remains. Several closely-allied species, e.g. E. atlariticus, 

 have been described from the Pleistocene of Algeria, but 110 

 form that can be regarded as ancestral has been found in the 

 Tertiary Beds of Africa. It is now generally supposed that 

 E. africanus arose from some at present unknown Stegodont, 

 and not as prevously suggested from an E. antiquus-like animal 

 in which the molar teeth were already more complex. 



The African Elephant (Central Hall) to-day ranges very widely 

 over Africa south of the Sahara, but fossil remains have been 

 found in Northern Africa and in the south of Europe. It is 

 distinguished by its convex forehead (Stands H, I), its very 



Fig. 32. 



A 



Tip of trunk of (A) the Asiatic and (B) the African Elephant. 



large ears, and by the presence of two finger-like processes on 

 the tip of the trunk (see fig. 32 B) . The molar teeth are con- 

 siderably simpler than those of the Indian species (see fig. 30 B), 

 the ridges being fewer in number and widening out in the 

 middle in a peculiar manner; the teeth also are relatively 

 smaller than in other elephants. 



It has lately been shown that, although there is only a single 

 species of African Elephant, nevertheless, in different parts of 

 the continent, there are different local races which may perhaps 

 be regarded as subspecies, and are in fact species in the making. 

 Differences in the form of the skull of these different races can 

 be detected, but the most striking characters distinguishing 

 them from one another are the size and shape of the ears. 



