104 FAUNA ANTIQUA SIVALENSIS. 



the occurrence of M. Oliioticus as a European species, upon 

 the evidence of an Italian fossil grinder, described by Borson, 

 as having been discovered in the hills of YiUanova, near 

 Asti ; but the great anatomist throws out a query, whether 

 it might not belong to a distinct species ? Since that time 

 similar remains have been discovered in Switzerland, and in 

 different parts of the South of France, which M. de Blainville 

 has brought together and described as a distinct species, 

 under the name proposed by Cuvier, of M. Taiiiroides. Lauril- 

 lard, in a note appended to the posthumous edition of the 'Osse- 

 mens Fossiles,' had previously expressed his opinion that these 

 remains indicated a species different from the North American 

 mastodon, but he has not characterized it by any name. 



The whole of the known materials attributed to this species 

 are at present inadequate to show what its dental system 

 really was. The back grinders are those in regard to which 

 there is least doubt. Of these the specimen described by 

 Professor Borson is one of the most characteristic. Like the 

 last tipper molar of M. Oliioticus, the rectangular crown is 

 composed of four transverse trenchant ridges, which are ob- 

 scurely divided into two pairs of principal points ; but their 

 direction is more oblique than in that species, and they are 

 not distinctly bisected by a longitudinal furrow as in the 

 latter. The two first ridges are worn, the second exhibiting 

 a rhomb-shaped disc like that of the American species, 

 while the two last are intact. The talon is broken off. The 

 hollows between the ridges are transverse, and free from any 

 tubercular processes of enamel. The dimensions are 6*1 inches 

 of leng-th by 3-2 inches of width in front. The enamel is 

 stated by Borson to be two lines in thickness. He considers 

 it to have been a back molar of the upper jaw, while M. de 

 Blainville assigns for it the place of the fifth or penultimate 

 of the lower jaw. Wlaether upper or lower, the form indi- 

 cates it to have been the last true molar of the jaw. The 

 large grinder figured by Buffon' presents a rectangular crown 

 with four trenchant transverse contuiuously-edged ridges and 

 a small crenulated heel. It appears to have been the last 

 upper true molar. Another specimen of the same tooth, from 

 Antroy, in the department of the Upper Saone, of nearly 

 similar form, is figured by De Blainville,^ along with speci- 

 mens from Alan and Sansans. No well-determined examples 

 of the anterior grinders of this species have yet been recorded. 

 Schintz has described the remains of two kinds of mastodon, 

 from the lignite mines of EUg and Koepnach in Zurich. Of 

 these, four grinders are referred to M. angustidens ; the other 



' Loc. cit. pi. i. and ii. p. 411. ] ^ Loc. cit. p. 318, pi. xvii. fig. 6«. 



