﻿ELEPHAS ANTIQUUS — TRUE MOLARS. 



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3. TRUE MOLARS. 



First True Molar. 



The first true molar in Elephants is perhaps more subject to variation than any 

 other member of the dental series, and therefore there is a great likelihood of confound- 

 ing it with the last of the milk series, seeing that their ridge formulas are ordinarily the 

 same. 



A very distinctive instance of this tooth is shown, natural size, PL III, fig. 2. It is 

 No. 37,241 of the National Collection, and was dredged off Happisborough. Here 

 there are x \ § x in 7 inches, the average thickness per ridge being about 0*5 inch ; it 

 maintains the long laminae with the narrow crown of E. aniiquus as compared with that 

 of the Mammoth. 



This important distinction is always best seen in true molars. The central expansion 

 and angulation are not always very pronounced in maxillary teeth unless the crowns are 

 more than half detrited ; whilst in mandibular specimens, from their ridges being more 

 apart, the condition becomes developed soon after the digitations are ground down and the 

 crown has become about one third worn. The anterior fang usually supports the first 

 three ridges, but now and then only the anterior talon. The highest ridge in Fig. 2 is 

 the tenth, which is six inches in height, whilst the maximum breadth of the crown is in 

 front, where in the above it is 2*2 inches. Of course a good deal will depend on the 

 state of attrition as to where the broadest part of the crown will be found, and this is at 

 once obvious when the configuration of upper and lower molars of the various stages of 

 growth are duly considered. 



Another upper tooth, also from Happisborough, but in an imperfect state, is repre- 

 sented by the specimen 33,369, B. M., the crown constituents of which are precisely of 

 the same character as in the preceding. 



A mandibular example is well shown in the jaw, No. 18,789, B. M., ' E. A. S.,' 

 pi. xiii a, figs. 5 and 5 a. The specimen was presented by the Earl of Aylesford (not 

 Aylesbury, as noted by Ealconer 1 ). The left tooth is entire, and holds x 11 x in 6-7 

 inches ; the crown is much arcuated, with disks well shown. Posteriorly there are clear 

 evidences of the socket of a much larger molar, which could not have been other than a 

 second true molar. 



Either a large last milk or an unusually small first true molar is admirably shown in 

 a mandible from the gravels of Wytham, in the Oxford University Museum. The 

 rami contain two fragments of molars with the two succeeding teeth in place ; the right 

 is entire, and holds x 11 x in 6' 2 inches, thus displaying small proportions for the first 



1 ' Pal. Mem.,' vol. i, p. 440, fig. 5, and vol. ii, p. 182. 



