MASTODON TAPIROi'DES IN EUSSIA. 67 



bones of the fore arm, crushed oittwards. The figures, however, 

 represent only a part, although certainly the chief portion, of the 

 original depot of the bones of the Woskressensk skeleton, — to wit, 

 those which M. Brandt and his colleagues had been able to observe 

 in their natural position. Before their arrival, several detached 

 bones or fragments were found, lying scattered close to the excava- 

 tion of the principal remains, and belonging chiefly to the extremities ; 

 these fragments were separately preserved, and presented to the 

 Commission on their arrival. Moreover, the lower end of the right 

 scapula had been sent to Odessa, to the Governor-General Count 

 Strogonow, from whom they subsequently received it. 



The bones in question are evidently a part of the imperfect remains 

 of the bones of the extremities, which, as stated in the preceding re- 

 port, had been discovered a few years ago. They lay in a superficial 

 stratum of earth ; so that the figured part of the remains, such as the 

 lower portion of the head and the greater part of the trunk, parti- 

 cularly the anterior and middle portions, lay at a lower level, and 

 were covered by a somewhat deeper layer of soil. From this dispo- 

 sition of the remains, it is intelligible how the displacements of the 

 bones and the destruction of the skull took place. 



The close study of the remains places it beyond doubt that they 

 belong to an Elephantine form ; and further, from the mammillated 

 crowns of the molars as well as the lower jaw, that they are of a 

 Mastodon. From the drawings which were in the first instance sent 

 here, says M. Brandt, I was disposed to ascribe them to Mastodon an- 

 gustidens, Cuv., e.p. Mast, angustidens, Owen (Brit. Foss. Mamm. 

 p. 271), Blainville (Osteogr. Gravigrades) —Mastodon arvernensis, 

 Croizet et Jobert (Ossem. Foss. du Puy de D6me) = Mastodon longi- 

 rostris, Kaup (Ossem. Foss. de Darmstadt, p. G5)=Alastodon Cuvieri 

 Pomel (Bullet, geolog. 1848, p. 257). A closer but in nowise satis- 

 factory study of the involved and tangled synonymy of the Masto- 

 dons led me, however, to abandon the earlier opinion formed from 

 the drawings, in consequence of the different form of the crowns of 

 the molars, as also the exceedingly short, straight symphysial pro- 

 cess of the lower jaw. Mastodon angustidens, Cuv. {magna e.p.), 

 Owen (= Mastodon longirostris, Kaup), possesses a very prolonged 

 and deflected symphysial process, half as long as the entire length of 

 the lower jaw, with moderately stout tusks, while the crowns of the 

 molars are characterized by the circumstance of constantly presenting 

 in the unworn state a small and accessory outlying tubercle, interposed 

 between each pair of the strongly compressed principal tubercles on 

 their broader surfaces. 



In contrast to the characters just indicated of Mastodon angusti- 

 dens, which would be considered identical with M. longirostris, it 

 may be said that in the Nikolajew remains the symphysial process, 

 together with the straight tusks, does not attain a quarter the length of 

 the lower jaw. The broad surfaces of the crown tubercles of the 

 molars are but slightly folded, and have no accessory tubercles between 

 them. The upper and elongated tusks are quite straight. 



With reference to their form resembling that of the Tapir, the 

 molars of our skeleton agree best with those of the Mastodon Tapi- 

 roides, Cuv.,'figured by De Blainville (Osteog. Gravigrades, PI. XVII.). 



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