334 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT 



showed that in its present form it was emphatically a north- 

 ern animal. This was also apparent from the thick layer of 

 fat beneath the skin. Among the grasses found in the ele- 

 phant's mouth were the following species : Thymus serpylluniy 

 Ranunculus acer borealis, and Papaver alpium, the Alpine 

 poppy, a relic of the Glacial Epoch. All the indications 

 point to the conclusion that the mammoth inhabited north- 

 ern Siberia at a time when the conditions differed but little 

 from those of the present day.* 



The range of the various species of mammoth has been 

 approximately determined by the ancient remains dis- 

 covered. The Siberian mammoth was present in central 

 Europe, Alaska, and Canada, as well as in Siberia, the 

 southern limit of its range extending into the northern 

 part of the United States ; the Columbian mammoth roamed 

 over the territory now constituting the United States, and 

 beyond its southern border, while the Imperial mammoth 

 was an inhabitant of the southwestern part of this territory 

 and also of Mexico. 



The evolution of the elephant, though there are some 

 gaps in the line of descent, may be said to begin as has 

 been noted, with the Eocene and Oligocene Moeritherium, 

 then comes the PaloBomastodon of the Oligocene period, 

 with a very short trunk, longer tusks, and an anatomical 

 structure approaching that characteristic of the mammoth 

 and the elephant. The next links in the chain are the 

 Miocene Trilophodon and Tetralophodon, a specimen of the 

 former from Texas shows well-developed functional lower 

 tusks, the upper tusks being relatively short; with a longi- 

 tudinal strip of enamel on the outer side.f In size the Tri- 



*Dr. Hugo Obermaier, "Der Mensch der Vorzeit," Allgemeine Verlags-Gesellschaft 

 Berlin, Miinchen, Wien [1912], p. 79 sqq. 



jThe tusks are sometimes much longer, as in a fine skeleton in the Paris Museum, but 

 they are straight instead of cur\-ing upward. 



