EVOLUTION OF ELEPHANTS 369 



NEBRASKA PROBOSCIDEANS^ 



Irrespective of the merits in the case, gigantic animals 

 make a far stronger popular appeal than small ones. It 

 is believed that no fossil mammals are as universally known 

 as the huge Proboscidea. They were the most ponderous 

 of all land animals and they possessed that unique and highly 

 specialized organ, the proboscis. They fire the imagination 

 and attract universal attention until the names Mastodon 

 and Mammoth are used in common parlance. 



Though considered rare, they are common and widely 

 distributed, and in Nebraska are found everywhere. This 

 is especially true of the early mastodons, for their remains 

 occur in the Pliocene along the northern border of the State 

 from Knox County to Sioux, a distance of 250 to 300 miles. 

 Could this broad area be divested of sod and soil, and sub- 

 jected to excessive erosion like the bad lands, mastodon 

 remains would be exposed in numbers passing comprehen- 

 sion. It is doubtful if any similar area could show so many 

 or such varied kinds. The rocks of the State are deeply 

 covered by soil, accordingly the collecting grounds are 

 restricted chiefly to ravines, bluffs, valleys, and canyon 

 walls. Mastodon teeth and bones are often struck in dig- 

 ging post holes and in drilling wells. Although their bones 

 and teeth are common objects and very abundant, they 

 are but the scattered remnants of former hosts. 



Scarcely thirty years ago writers declared that the inter- 

 mediate proboscideans were lost, and the phylogeny of the 

 order absolutely unknown, but now the genealogy of the 

 elephant promises to be as definitely determined as that 

 of the horse. It is a safe prediction that when the mastodon 



*Tliese interesting and valuable details regarding the fossil remains of Proboscideans 

 in Nebraska have been contributed by Erwin Hinckley Barbour, State Geologist of Ne- 

 braska and Director of the State Museum of Natural History. 



