EUROPEAN FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



§ 8. Persistence in Time of the Distinctive Characters 

 op the European Fossil Elephants. 



Having long enjoyed the privilege of intimate intercourse 

 with. Charles Darwin, I have heen for many years familiar 

 with the gradual development of his views on the Origin of 

 Species ; and I have been included by him in the category of 

 those who have vehemently maintained the persistence of 

 specific characters. My attention has, in consequence, been 

 closely directed to the evidence yielded by the Pliocene and 

 Quaternary deposits of Europe in its bearing on the question, 

 in so far as the fossil Mammalia are concerned. 



Commencing with the older Pliocene strata of the Sub- 

 Apennines and of the Yal d'Arno, and ascending to the 

 superficial gravels or quaternary deposits of comparatively 

 modern origin, at least four well-defined species of fossil 

 Elephant have been ascertained to have existed in Europe, 

 namely, E. (Loxodon) meridionalis, E. (Euelephas) antiquus, E. 

 (Euelephas) primigenius, and E. (Loxodon) Africanus fossilis. 1 

 A vast number of remains of the three first named of these 

 species have been exhumed over a large area in Europe ; 

 and, even in the geological sense, an enormous interval of 

 time has elapsed between the formation of the most ancient 

 and the most recent of these deposits, quite sufficient to test 

 the persistence of specific characters in an Elephant. Do 

 then the successive Elephants, occurring in these strata, 

 show any signs of a passage from the older form into the 

 newer ? or what light do they throw on the general question ? 



It is obviously beyond the scope and limits of the present 

 communication to enter at length on the details of this great 



1 I omit from the list E. {Loxodon') 

 priscus {vide Synop. Table, Quart. Journ. 

 Greol. Soe. 1857, vol. xiii. p. 319*), which 

 I now regard as being a form of E. anti- 

 quus, and E. Armcniacus, or the fossil 

 Elephant of Sicily and Italy, which is 

 closely allied to the existing Indian 

 species, in order to relieve the argument 

 of any elements which may not be con- 

 sidered us being at present established 

 on sufficient evidence. I omit also an 

 undescribed fossil Elephant from the 

 ossiferous caves of Malta, which is in 

 some respects the most remarkable and 

 unexpected form that has yet been dis- 

 covered, fossil or recent. The conception 

 of an Elephant is associated in the 

 mind with the familiar idea of colossal 

 size. E. Melitensis, the name which I 

 have applied to the new species, was the 

 pigmy form of the order. I am iD 



possession of a last cervical vertebra of 

 an adult animal, the body of which does 

 not exceed 2-8 inches in vertical dia- 

 meter, and 0-95 in thickness, with a 

 humerus of a younger, but nearly adult 

 individual, the entire length of which 

 was not more than 10 inches. The 

 species was discovered through the re- 

 searches of Capt. Spratt, C.B., of H.M. 

 ship ' Medina,' to whose indefatigable 

 labours in the Mediterranean Science is 

 so deeply indebted. The discovered 

 remains, now entrusted to my charge, 

 include nearly the entire dentition, from 

 the new-born calf up to the adult animal, 

 of numerous individuals. In the Syste- 

 matic Series, it belonged to the sub- 

 genus Loxodon, and in size, stood be- 

 tween a large Tapir and the small 

 unicorned Rhinoceros of Java. 

 * Antca, p. 14. — [Ed.] 



