362 THE BOOK OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM 



Nam Period. Leading Details. 



Tetrabelodor Miocene Elongated lower jaw. Trunk and tusks 



still longer. Snout still less prominent. 



The Elephant Recent ong trunk and tusks. Short neck. 



{Elephas Africanus} Snouty prominence absent in skulls of 



adults, but detected in infants. 



The Elephant's tusks have evidently been developed from promi- 

 nent teeth of a remote ancestor, and its trunk or proboscis is the 

 result of a gradual extension of the face and upper lip. The lower 

 jaw seems to have shortened as the trunk has developed, until it 

 presented no obstacle to its falling over and hanging freely in the 

 regulation way. Fuller facts and evidences of the Elephant's 

 history and ancestry will be found in Sir Ray Lankester's Extinct 

 Animals, to which' I have already had occasion to refer several times. 

 Dr. A. Smith Woodward, F.R.S., thus concisely sums up the 

 changes involved : "They gradually increased in size without essen- 

 tially altering their limbs and body ; but as their legs lengthened and 

 their neck shortened, their face and chin gradually became elongated 

 to reach the ground for browsing. When this strange adaptation had 

 reached its maximum degree, the chin suddenly shrivelled, leaving 

 the flexible toothless face without any support. Thus arose the 

 unique proboscis of the Elephants, which has become prehensile by 

 stages which cannot be traced, because soft parts are not preserved 

 in ordinary geological formations." x It will be noticed, if the 

 theories presented are correct, that both the Elephant and the Horse 

 have evolved from quite small ancestors. This rinding, of course, is 

 quite contrary to the superstitious imaginings of those who people 

 the old world with monsters and fail to realize that we have monsters 

 in the world of to-day bigger than any of which the fossilized 

 remains have been discovered. 



THE MAMMOTH. (See Plate II.) No extinct animal has been 

 the Subject of greater interest than the Mammoth (Elephas primi- 

 genius). The Plate referred to gives a fair idea of its appearance. 

 In height it was from fifteen to eighteen feet ; its skin was clothed 

 with wool of a reddish-brown hue, and it had what might be termed 

 a mane of black hairs along its back. It possessed enormous tusks. 

 This shaggy-hided Elephant is said to be akin to the existing Indian 

 Elephant. Quite possibly the Mammoth and the Indian Elephant 

 may have been derived from a common ancestor ; the former having 

 adapted itself to a cooler climate and the latter to a tropical. Remains 



1 Quoted by Rev. H. N. Hutchinson in his Extinct Monsters and Creatures of 

 Other Days. 



