TRANSACTIONS 



OF 



THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



I. On the Dentition and Osteology of the Maltese fossil Elephants, being a Description 

 of Eemains discovered by the Author in Malta between the years 1860 and 1866. 

 By A. Leith Adams, M.B., F.B.S., F.G.S. 



Eead June 24, 1873. 



[Plates I. to XXII.] 



I. Intkoduction. 



I HE discovery of remains of large quadrupeds in a fossil state in the superficial 

 deposits of the island of Malta has been recorded by one of its earliest historians'; and 

 subsequently the geologist Dolomieu ' detected teeth of Hippopotamus ; but no further 

 attention seems to have been given to the subject until of late years, when the contents 

 of other cavern- and fissure-deposits disclosed remains of extinct species of elephants, 

 also exuviae of large rodents and aquatic bii'ds, descriptions of which are contained in 

 the sixth volume of the Society's Transactions ^ Associated with the above were 

 reptilian remains, with indications of the presence also of Carnivora, which, however, 

 were represented only by traces of fierce gnawing on several elephants' bones from the 

 Zebbug cave. 



The geological conditions in connexion with the animal exuviae from Zebbug have 

 been fully detailed * ; it only remains to describe the reptilian bones thoroughly, so as to 

 complete the osteology of the Maltese fossil fauna collected by Admiral Spratt, C.B. 



In the following I will attempt to define the characters and relations of the teeth 



' Abela's 'Delia descrittione di Malta,' 16-47. ' Appendix to St. Priest's 'Malta.' ' Pages 119, 227-307. 

 ' " On the Bone-caves near Crendi, Zebbug, and Melliha in the Island of Malta," by Capt. Spratt, E.N., C.B., 

 r.R.S., F.G.S., Quart. Joum. Geol. Soc. vol. sxiii. page 283. 



VOL. IX. — PART I. November, 1874. b 



