124 Geological Gleanings. 



The former of these suppositions is perhaps the more prohable, as 

 the sauriod characters of the batrachians hitherto found in the 

 coal measures, point to the general assumption by the batra- 

 chians of that early period of structures, afterwards restricted by 

 the Creator to nobler members of the class. 



Dr. Falconer on Extinct Elephantine 'Animals. Jour. Geol. 

 Society of London, No. 52. — Only two species of elephants exist 

 in the modern world, but in the later tertiary era there must have 

 been at least twenty-six species, and these were extensively dis- 

 tributed over North America, Europe, and Northern Asia, as well 

 as India. What an addition it would be to the modern fauna, 

 were these alone of all the great multitude of perished species re- 

 stored to life, and thus widely diffused. These species, however, 

 were not contemporaneous even in the tertiary period. Thirteen 

 are stated to belong to the Miocene tertiary, one to the Miocene 

 and Pliocene, eight to the Pliocene, and four to the Post Pliocene. 

 It would thus appear that the Miocene period in which these giant 

 proboscideans first appear, gives us also the greatest number of 

 species. To the Miocene also belong two species of another great 

 proboscidean, the Dinotherium. 



The extinct elephants have hitherto been arranged in two ge- 

 nera only. 1. Mastodon (Cuvier), having the teeth comparatively 

 simple, and divided on the crown into broad mammillae or tuber- 

 cles, arranged in transverse ridges. All the species of this genus 

 are extinct. 2. Elephas (Lin.), having the teeth very complex, 

 and the crown with numerous thin tranverse ridges, filled in with 

 cement. The two recent elephants belong to this genus, as well 

 as the well known extinct mammoth. Dr. Falconer divides the 

 Mastodons into two sub-genera, as follows : — 1. Trilophodon hav- 

 ing three ridges on each of the true molars. 2. Tetralophodon, 

 having 4 or more, rarely 5 ridges. The genus Elephas he divides 

 into three sub-genera. 1. Stegodon with 1 to 8 ridges, obtuse like 

 those of the mastodons. 2. Loxodon with V to 8 ridges, more 

 elongated and acute than in the Mastodon. 3. Euelephas having 

 12 to 18 acute and thin-plated ridges. The genus Trilophodon 

 includes our American Mastodons, whish are the latest represen- 

 tatives of this form, and extend to the Post Pliocene period. The 

 Tetralophodons occur principally in the Miocene, and none of 

 them in the new world. The genus Stegodon is Miocene, and hi- 

 therto found only in India. The genus Loxodon is represented by 

 one Miocene and two Pliocene species, and by the recent African 



