168 BKITISH AND EUROPEAN FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



I have seen no authentic specimen of an upper penultimate 

 of the Mammoth presenting more than sixteen or seventeen 

 ridges. That exceptional cases do occur, in which as many 

 as eighteen may be seen, is not improbable ; but I believe 

 that, as holds in the existing Indian species, the prevailing 

 and normal number is sixteen. De Blainville (Osteographie : 

 ' Des Elephants,' p. 195) describes as a penultimate upper 

 the cast of a molar in the collection of M. Duhamel de 

 JSTamvilliers, of which the crown presents not more than 

 fourteen collines ; but he adds that the tooth is unusually 

 short, and that the ridges are thick. It is, therefore, very 

 questionable whether the rank which he has assigned to it as 

 a penultimate is correct, even if the molar belongs to the 

 species. Many of the specimens in the Palseontological 

 Gallery at Paris, which M. de Blainville has referred to the 

 Mammoth, have been identified by me as belonging tp Elephas 

 antiquus and to E. (Loxod.) meridionalis 



Professor Owen has given a very beautiful representation of 

 an upper molar of a Mammoth from the Essex Till in figs. 

 91 and 92 of the 'British Fossil Mammalia' (p. 237), in- 

 cluding both crown and side aspects. It is not specially 

 described in that work ; but in the ' Odontography ' he 

 states (p. 6Q6) that the fifth (or penultimate), ranging in 

 length of crown from 8 to 11 inches, is composed of from 

 sixteen to twenty-four plates ; and he refers to the figures 

 above cited as illustrations of a penultimate upper of a 

 Mammoth showing as many as twenty-four plates. The 

 specimen, judging from the figures, is of an old molar in an 

 advanced stage of wear ; and the posterior ridges, although 

 of less height than is usually seen in the penultimate, are 

 comparatively high for a last upper molar of the Mammoth, 

 as that tooth is commonly met with; but the excessive 

 number of the ridges is, in my view, conclusive against its 

 being a ' fifth,' and equally so in favour of its being a last 

 true molar deviating somewhat from the common form. De 

 Blainville has figured in the ' Osteographie ' (Tab. VIII. fig. 6) 

 a last upper molar of a Mammoth, from the Canal de l'Ourcq, 

 in a more advanced stage of wear, which, allowing for this 

 circumstance, does not differ much in form from the tooth 

 figured in the ' British Fossil Mammalia.' ' 



The last true molar, upper, of E. primigenius is subject to 

 the same variation in the number of ridges as the corre- 

 sponding tooth of the existing Indian species. They range 

 from twenty-two to twenty-six, the prevailing number being 

 about twenty-four. These teeth differ also very remarkably 



1 Mr. Prestwich's specimen (p. 165) is another example of upper t.m. 2 of E. 

 primigenius. — [Ed.] 



