406 



FOSSILS FKOM PEKIM ISLAND. 



the meantime must content myself with the simple state- 

 ment, that the North American Mastodon and the Indian 

 Dinotherium are the nearest connecting forms of the two 

 genera yet known, and that their relationship is far from 

 being remote, perhajDS even nearer than that of the American 

 Mastodon to the Indian Elephant or the Mammoth. ^ 



The deflection of the symphysis commences immediately 

 behind the second molar, as in the Din. giganteum, and it is 

 evidently produced into a great bluif mass, bent downwards 

 as in that species. The section at this point does not include 

 any part of an inferior tusk, or of an alveolus for it ; but 

 Dr. Kaup^ teUs me that the large tusks of the Eppelsheim 

 species, with their alveoli, always terminate considerably in 

 front of the anterior premolar. There is no reason, there- 

 fore, to conclude that the Indian had not tusks resembling 

 those of the European species ; and although there is no 

 direct evidence to the point, everything in the construction 

 of the symphysis goes to support the presiimption that there 

 were tusks. The posterior mentary foramen is of large size, 

 and situated at the outside under the anterior premolar, 

 exactly as in the Eppelsheim fossil, but at a greater distance 

 from the alveolar border of the jaw. It is much larger than 

 the foramen seen in the cast of the Eppelsheim lower jaw ; 

 but no faith can be. put in the dimensions of a foramen 

 measured on a cast. 



In regard to the teeth, nothing is seen of their crowns, 

 which have been broken oS close to the alveolar margin ; 

 but the bony partitions between five teeth are distinctly 

 visible, showing the usual complement in Dinotherium, and 

 proving that the fossil was derived from an adult animal. 

 These five teeth consist of two premolars and three true 

 molars. They diminish in width from the backmost forwards, 

 as in the European species. The anterior premolar has two 

 lobes, the front one being compressed and sharpened off 

 forwards into a cuneiform edge, the rear lobe being shorter 

 and broader. This tooth is upwards of half an inch longer 

 than that belonging to the jaw of the great specimen figured 

 by Kaup. The second premolar is nearly square in outline, 

 but wider behind. It aj)pears to have had two ridges, and 

 four fangs. The third tooth or first true molar presents a 

 length of 4 inches by 2 -8 of extreme breadth ; while that of 



• See antca, p. 85. — [Ed.] 



* I have had the advantage, ■while 

 engaged on the examination of this 

 fossil, to benefit during his present resi- 

 dence in London, by the intimate 

 knowledge of the structure of the 

 Dinotherium, possessed by this distin- 



guished palaeontologist, the founder of 

 the genus. Dr. Kaup was at once 

 convinced of the generic relations of 

 both the fossils, but he is in nowise 

 responsible for any of the opinions here 

 advanced regarding the distinctness of 

 the species, or its affinities. 



