54 



BRITISH AND EUROPEAN FOSSIL MASTODONS. 



Professor Owen has on three occasions described the fossil 

 mammalia of the Red Crag : first, in 1840 ; l next, in his 

 'British Fossil Mammalia' in 1846; and latterly, as a 

 Supplement, in No. 47 of the ' Quarterly Journal of the Geolo- 

 gical Society.' 2 In neither has he included two of the genera 

 cited by Mr. Charlesworth, viz. Elephas and Hippopotamus, 

 both being of great significance as diagnostic of the age of 

 European tertiary strata. No specimen of a tooth of Hippo- 

 potamus from a Red Crag locality, so far as I am aware, has 

 hitherto been figured or described ; and the occurrence of this 

 genus in the deposit cannot at present be regarded as an 

 established fact ; but several molars of fossil Elephas, present- 

 ing the characteristic mineral condition of the Mammalian 

 remains of the Red Crag, have long been deposited in public 

 and private collections, bearing labels as being from Red Crag 

 localities in Suffolk. One specimen, in particular, in the 

 Museum of Practical Geology, is marked as being from Felix- 

 stow, and other reputed instances of the same kind will be 

 noticed in the sequel. 



In the ' Conspectus ' contained in the ' British Fossil 

 Mammalia,' Prof. Owen enumerates, as Mammalia of the 

 ' Miocene Red Crag,' remains of Ursus, Meles, Felis pardoides, 

 Sus, and Gervus. But he adds in a note, that ' the nature of 

 the stratum renders the actual age of these fossils doubtful.' 

 To the enumeration of the five Eocene species of Getacea in 

 the same conspectus, he appends a note, ' that most of them 

 occur in the Miocene Crag, but there is little doubt that they 

 were washed out of the underlying Eocene clay.' The 

 ' Cetotolites ' in question were discovered by Professor Hen- 

 slow in the Red Crag at Felixstow, 3 which has yielded abundant 

 Mammalian remains of herbivorous quadrupeds. In his late 

 paper, Professor Owen gives an account, more or less detailed, 

 of the remains of twelve species of Mammalia (exclusive of 

 Getacea) from the Red Crag, belonging to the genera Rhin- 

 oceros, Tapirus, Sus, Equus, and probably Hipparion, Mastodon, 

 Gervus (of the subgenera Dicranoceros and Megaceros), Felis 

 (two species), Ganis, and Ursus. He sums up the following 

 conclusion, which, from its importance, I quote in extenso : — 



' From the foregoing details it will be seen that the 

 researches now applied during fifteen years to the Mammalian 

 fossils of the Red Crag of Suffolk have led to the very inter- 

 esting result, that the majority of them are identical, or 

 closely correspond, with Miocene forms of Mammalia, and 

 especially with those from the Eppelsheim locality, described 



1 Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist. vol. iv. 

 p. 186. 



2 Op. cit. 1856, vol. xii. p. 217. 



3 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. vol. i. 

 p. 37. 



