330 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT 



more easily masticated than that on which the Indian ele- 

 phants nourish themselves. This has resulted in the de- 

 velopment of molars on the surface of which the plates appear 

 in perhaps only six or seven lozenge-shaped ridges. 



The development of elephants and mastodons and the 

 area over which the animals roamed in the later geological 

 periods can be presented with a fair degree of accuracy 

 by utilizing the evidence provided by fossil remains in 

 various parts of the world. The following views are offered 

 by one of the most competent investigators in this field.* 

 The geological data from the later Tertiary and the Qua- 

 ternary periods clearly indicate Asia as the region whence 

 the various species spread themselves over the world. The 

 leading characteristics of the northern species are their 

 smaller size, a more marked specialization of the teeth, 

 length of tusks, and a shortening of the skull accompanied 

 by a proportionate lengthening of the trunk. Primitive 

 types of the mastodon have been found in the Oligocene of In- 

 dia, the Lower Miocene of Europe, and the Middle Miocene 

 of North America, the Pliocene and Pleistocene of India 

 offering the best view of the intermediate stages of the pro- 

 gressive developments of mammoth and elephant from the 

 earlier forms, the palseontological material from North 

 America not giving as exact a series. While mammoths 

 and elephants were very widely distributed in Pleistocene 

 times, there is but scant evidence that they ever extended 

 to South America, although a certain quantity of mas- 

 todon remains have been found there. That the earli- 

 est forms of Proboscidea have been found in Egypt is not 

 regarded by Doctor Matthew as proof of the Ethiopic origin 

 of these primal forms, as the Oligocene of northern Egypt, 

 whence this palseontological material has been derived, 



*W. D. Matthew, "Climate and Evolution," Annals of the New York Academy of 

 Sciences, Vol. XXIV, pp. 171-318; New York, February 18, 191.5. See pp. 25-4, 255. 



