362 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT 



than even those of the modern elephant, suggests that 

 they ate hard food, such as pine needles, and that the 

 teeth might be called "needle grinders." It is an open 

 question whether the mammoth could live in Siberia at 

 the present time — whether there are enough conifers and 

 other similar trees at the present time to supply them with 

 the requisite food, although as we have stated the tangible 

 evidence supplied by the more complete remains shows that 

 these particular animals had subsisted on other vegetable 

 growths. Possibly this may have involved a change of diet 

 that acted unfavourably upon the species. 



At birth elephants are generally covered with what is 

 known as laguno, or prenatal hair, just as the human embryo 

 at the seventh month of the foetal period is covered with 

 hair, and the head sometimes with a growth of hair at birth, 

 this falling out and longer hair taking its place. This la- 

 guno is found on both the Asiatic and African elephant. 

 As there is no necessity for the hair, the animal requiring 

 no warm covering, a new growth of hair does not come in, 

 but it is surmised that the laguno was retained by the 

 mammoth, and that the coldness of the climate caused 

 thicker hair to grow, possibly in the autumti or early winter. 

 This would suggest that the climate must have been a se- 

 vere one, and it is claimed by Lull and others that the mam- 

 moth, in some regions at least, fed upon small leaves of the 

 Conifer (pine) Family. However, it must be noted that the 

 very considerable food remains (some 22 pounds in weight) 

 that were found in the stomach of the Berezovka mammoth 

 from Siberia did not include any material from conifers, 

 and the same appears to be true of the plant forms associated 

 with the Borna mammoth from Saxony. As to tlie hairy 

 growth, it certainly appears most probable that this took 

 place in the autumn, Ajs there is so little seasonal change 

 in the regions now forming the habitat of the African and 



