bo 
oo 
THE MALTESE FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 
There is central expansion and angulation, with irregular crimping in newly invaded, 
and fine crimping on the cement-side of the well-worn disk. 
Summary.—In the first place, from what has just and previously been stated, with 
respect to the molars I have assigned to the position of penultimate milk-molars, it 
seems to me evident that none of the foregoing can be referred to a more youthful 
condition than the last of the milk-series. Before, however, attempting to classify 
these complex varieties of molars, we must bear well in mind that there is a wide 
individual difference, as regards size, between specimens of last milk and first true 
molars in all known species of elephants. I find among the materials in the British 
Museum, and the fine collection of molars of the Asiatic Elephant in the Royal College 
of Surgeons, that this difference is remarkable. In the paleontological collection of the 
British Museum there are specimens of the last milk-molar of the Mammoth, holding 
the same number of ridges, with fully one inch difference in length; indeed, as stated 
by Falconer, “ often the antepenultimate true molar of a large variety may be nearly as 
large as the penultimate of a small one”'. Therefore slight differences in size, other 
points being equal, must be received with considerable caution. 
1. Reverting to the fragments of jaws (PI. II. figs. 1 & 2) containing the penultimate and 
germs of the last milk-teeth, I find that the collines of the latter in both rami are slightly 
longer and broader than the largest plates of A Series, but agree exactly with those of B 
Series. Now, with reference to the members of A Series, although differing perceptibly 
in dimensions from B Series, they all maintain the same ridge-formula, the same crown- 
pattern, and thickness of plates; in fact they are distinct only as regards size. If a 
comparison between the upper molars Nos. 45 & 18 (Pl. I. figs. 10 & 11) is made, it 
will be found that their relative lengths are 2 and 2°8 inches; and the last lower molar of 
Falconer? and No. 44 (Pl. IV. fig. 3) give proportional lengths of 2°3 to 3 inches, which 
will be found by no means remarkable individual differences between teeth holding 
the same number of ridges, or one of which (as in the case of No. 44) has an extra 
ridgelet. I am therefore disposed to conclude that A and B Series represent the last 
milk-molar of a small form or species of Elephant, whose antepenultimate and penulti- 
mate milk-teeth are exhibited by Pl. I. fig. 6 and fig. 8. 
The ridge-formula, therefore, of its milk-molars would stand 5:7: 10-11, or, without 
talons, 3: 5 : 8-9, which, with the exception of an occasional extra ridge in the lower 
jaw, is precisely the same as that deduced by Dr. Falconer from the Zebbug collection. 
2. The two upper and two lower molars comprising C Series are distinct from any other 
specimens in my collection; and being from different localities, there is no likelihood 
that their peculiar outlines are to be ascribed to casual or individual peculiarities. At 
all events they would appear to claim the position of true molars, each holding eleven 
ridges. As compared with the last milk-molars of the smallest form, they agree with 
1 « On the Mastodon and Elephant,’’ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol, xxi, p. 317. 
? Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. vi. pl. 53. fig. 5. 
