64 



FAUNA ANTIQUA SIVALENSIS. 



Two species of Mastodon have been proposed by Eidiwald, 

 from remains found in Poland, under tlie names of M. Podo- 

 licus^ and M. intermedius f the former of which appears to be 

 founded on a disguised fragment of the lower jaw of Dino- 

 therium giganteum, and the evidence adduced in support of 

 the latter is insufficient as yet to establish its si^ecific inde- 

 pendence. M. de Blainville refers it to M. Tapiro'ides.^ 



One of the authors has described some of the remains of a 

 typical species of Mastodon, fi-om the tertiary deposits of 

 India, under the name of M. Sivalensis,^ a detailed account 

 of which will be given in this work. 



Professor Owen has proposed the provisional name of if. 

 Australis,^ for a form which rests upon a solitary specimen, 

 brought from Australia. We shall have occasion to refer to 

 this specimen in the sequel. 



The grounds upon which Cuvier technically rested his 

 generic distinction between Mastodon and Eleplms having 

 been invalidated by the discovery of the species named M. 

 Eleplmnto'ides by Clift, it became necessary for systematic 

 authors either to luiite them under a single generic name, or 

 to devise other diagnostic characters for their separation. 

 Bronn, in his ' Letha3a,' gives an elaborate definition of the 

 two genera, founded upon the observations of his country- 

 men, Kaup and von Meyer, on the European species, and of 

 the American naturalists upon M. Ohioticus. He charac- 

 terizes Mastodon'' by inferior tusks ; by the presence simul- 

 taneously of a greater number of grinders in each jaw ; and 

 by the expulsion of the anterior tooth in the young animal 

 by a vertically succeeding premolar. The distinctive charac- 

 ters of Eleplias he defioies to be, the absence of inferior tusks ; 

 a less number of more complex grinders at one time in the 

 jaws ; and the uniform antero-posterior succession of the 

 whole series of molars without a vertical premolar. M. de 

 Blainville, in his great work,^ has given the most full and 

 detailed account of the sjoecies of both genera, that has 

 appeared since the publication of the ' Ossemens Possiles,' 

 and has endeavoured, by original observation and by the col- 

 lation of information drawn from every accessible source, to 

 make his memoir a monog-raph of the subject, brought up to 

 the state of our knowledge at the pi-esent day. Having 

 satisfactorily proved that the number of molar teeth, deve- 



• Vide siipra, note, p. 45. 



2 Eicliwald, 'Zoologia Special.' 1831, 

 vol. iii. p. 361. 



3 Ost^ograpliie, ' Des Elephants,' p. 

 259. 



* Journ. A£iat. Soc. of Bcng. vol. v. 



p. 294. 



^ Ann. of Nat. Hist. xiv. 1844, p. 296. 



" Lethsea Geognostica, 1838, Band ii. 

 pp. 1233-1240. 



' Osteogi-aphie, ' Des Elephants,' Fas- 



