﻿2 I. 



BRITISH FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



enamel is thin and well crimped; in fact, the grinder is nearly worn out, and the plane of 

 detrition passes through the broadest part of the plates, which is ordinarily near the enamel 

 reflections. The same will be observed in the section of the other molar from Grays 

 Thurrock, 1 No. 39,370, B. M., which, with the above, were all the British specimens 

 then known to him in connection with the variety of molar now under consideration. 

 This interesting tooth is designated by Falconer as "a last molar, left side of the 

 lower jaw." 2 I cannot, however, subscribe to that opinion, inasmuch as a reference to 

 the specimen, or even a glance at the above sections in the ' Memoirs ' or in the ' Fauna 

 Antiq. Sival.,' will show a decided pressure mark posteriorly. Indeed, it may be doubtful if 

 the tooth has claims to be considered other than a first true molar. Admitting, however, 

 it is the second, we have a crown, nearly worn out, with eight ridges in a space of as 

 many inches. The disk is wider than in the Norfolk tooth, and evidently the plates 

 were relatively thicker than usually attain in lower jaw teeth • so that the condition is 

 not altogether dependent on the state of wear, but, as will appear in the sequel, on a 

 variety of tooth which I have named the tldck-jrtaied molar, a character seemingly 

 common to other extinct species, to Avit, Elephas primir/enius, Elephas Mnaidriensis, and 

 E. Ealconeri ; 3 and just lately I have been shown by Mr. John Gunn specimens of thick- 

 plated molars of E. meridionalis, from the Forest Bed, so that, considered either as a 

 sexual or race character, or even an occasional condition, the thicker plate, like the 

 central portion of the disk of E. antiquus, is not confined to one species of Elephant. No 

 doubt the imperfection of these two specimens misled Falconer a good deal at the time, and 

 it was only after he had examined numerous collections on the Continent that he found in 

 18G3 4 that his so-called Elephas priscus was a form of Elephas antiquus. It is also 

 suggestive that on comparing the specimens with the teeth of E. Africanus the resem- 

 blance was so striking that in his essay he was inclined to consider these molars as represent- 

 ing the teeth of the African Elephant in a fossil state ; a sufficient indication of the 

 variability in the crown pattern of the molar of Elephas antiquus. 



Foreign specimens. — Dr. Falconer describes a portion of a skull, including the last 

 milk, first true molar, and the penultimate in germ behind, from Monte Verdi at Rome. 

 The first true molar holds x 10 a? in 55 inches. He also refers to a well-worn lower 

 molar with ten plates in 5*7 inches from the same locality. 5 The former is assuredly a 

 small first true molar, and interesting as regards the Maltese pygmies ; but, as will be 

 shown presently, such an exception is rare with Elephas antiquus as met with in Italian 

 deposits, more especially in connection with the two last members of the dental series. 



An injured upper molar, No. 32,539, B. M., from Champagne holds ten and a half 



1 ' Pal. Mem.,' pi. vii, fig. 2, and ■ F. A. S.,' pi. xiv, fig. 7. 



2 ' Pal. Mem.,' ii, p. 96. 



3 Dentition and Osteology of the Maltese fossil Elephants, ' Trans. Zool. Society,' vol. ix, pp. C and 35. 



4 ' Pal. Mem.,' vol. ii, p. 251 (footnote). 



5 Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 181 and 183. 



