EVOLUTION OF ELEPHANTS 325 



It was, however, in the Pleistocene age that the elephant 

 was most widely distributed over the earth's surface, and 

 the largest number of species are shown in this period. 

 With the exception of Australia, elephants existed in every 

 part of the world during the greater part of the Pleistocene 

 age; its close, however, was marked by a notable decrease 

 in their number, culminating in the reduction of the many 

 types to the Indian and African elephants as we now have 

 them.* 



Restoration of Tetrabelodon angustidens 

 — From " A Guide to the Elephants (recent and fossil) 

 in the British Museum (Natural History Division)." 



A close morphological relationship with the elephant, in 

 the earliest stages of its development, has been claimed 

 for the Sirenia, or sea-cows, the American representa- 

 tive being the Florida manatee (Manatus americanus) , in 

 spite of their apparent unlikeness to any of the Probosci- 

 dea. In the Eocene of the Fayum in Egypt, where remains 



*Richard S. Lull, "The Evolution of the Elephant," Peabody Museum of Natural 

 History, Guide No. 2. Reprinted from Amer. Jour. Sc, Vol. XXV, March, 1908. The 

 Proboscideans of South America occur in the Pampean formation which is regarded as 

 Pleistocene by Professor Scott and other authorities. See W. B. Scott, 1913, "History of 

 the Land Manunals of the Western Hemisphere," p. 133. W. D. Matthew, 1915, Trans. 

 N. Y. Acad. Sci., Vol. XXIV, pp. 195-200. 



