80 



BRITISH AND EUROPEAN FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



probability that the same species of Elephant ranged from 

 the Pliocene up, through the Pleistocene, to the Post-Pliocene 

 period, adheres to the specific imity of Elephas primigenius ; 

 and he endeavours to escape from the difficulty by assuming 

 that the so-called Pliocene remains of Elephants have been 

 wrongly determined, and ought to be referred to the genus 

 Mastodon. To avoid cumbering the present communication 

 by a tedious citation of other authorities, I may refer to the 

 two latest compilations on palseontology, respectively by 

 Bronn and Pictet, for the existing state of knowledge and 

 opinion upon the subject. Bronn, after an exhaustive expo- 

 sition of the literature on fossil Elephants, sums up by 

 stating that the number of fossil species, exclusive of two or 

 three Indian forms and of E. prisms (upon which he does 

 not venture to decide), is limited to a single, or, at the 

 utmost, two fossil species ; and he ranges all the European 

 forms, with the exception of E. prisons, under the synonymy 

 of E. primigenius. 1 Pictet doubts the veritable fossil nature 

 of the specimens upon which E. prisms was founded; the 

 other nominal species he considers as not established on 

 sufficient grounds, and he would continue them all, inclusive 

 of E. meridionalis, under the common designation of E. pri- 

 migenius. He questions the occurrence of Elephant remains 

 in the Pliocene period, leaning to the opinion of Gervais, 

 that the asserted instances should be referred to the genus 

 Mastodon. 2 



The restriction of the European fossil Elephants to a single 

 species was first called in question by Nesti, as far back as 

 1808, upon fossil remains discovered in the Val d'Axno, for 

 which he proposed two new designations. 3 Nesti was in 

 possession of the most ample materials for the establish- 

 ment of one of these,. E. meridionalis ; but, unfortunately for 

 science, he described the lower jaw of Mastodon {Tetralo- 

 pliodon) Arvernensis as that of an Elephant, and abandoned 

 the characters furnished by the molar teeth as untrustworthy 

 and uncertain ; and his Elephas meridionalis and E. minutus 

 succumbed to a criticism by Cuvier. The former was revived 

 by Croizet and Jobert in 1828, for remains found in the 

 Velay 4 under the name of Elephant de Malbattu; it has been 



1 ' Die Anzahl der fossilen Arten mag 

 sidi, ausser 2 bis 3 bstindischcn am 

 Fusse des Himalayah gefunden, und ab- 

 gesehen von E. prisons, iiber den wir 

 nicht entscheiden wollen, auf eine bis 

 liochstens zwei besdiranken, womit audi 

 die americanische dickplattige Form, E. 

 Americanus, Leidy, iibereinzustimmen 

 scheint.' — Bronn, Lethsea geognost. 



(1856) edit. 3, Band iii. p. 814. 



2 Pictet, Paleontologie, 1853, torn. i. 

 p. 284. 



3 Annali del Museo di Firenze, torn. i. 

 ' Di aleune ossa fossili de' Mammiferi 

 die s' incontrano nel Val d' Arno.' 



4 Oss. Foss. du Puy-de-D6nie, pp. 123— 

 132. 



