﻿ELEPHAS ANTIQUUS— CRANIUM. 



51 



III. OSTEOLOGY. 



In attempting the determination of species from fossil Elephantine remains there is 

 considerable difficulty in arriving at a certain diagnosis, partly on account of the 

 fragmentary state and general similarities of specimens, chiefly of the long bones, whilst 

 the minuter points at all likely to be subservient towards distinguishing the species are 

 too often lost, or occupy a debatable position as to constancy. It is only, as elsewhere 

 observed, when the exact distinctions between the osteologies of the living species 

 have been ascertained from the comparison of abundant materials of wild individuals, 

 that anatomists will be in a position to speak with confidence of the endoskeletons of the 

 extinct forms. The following determinations, therefore, more especially in connection 

 with the elements of the vertebral column and several long bones, must be considered 

 provisional. 



The circumstance of the finding of teeth and bones of the Elep/ias antiquus and 

 E. meridionalis together, and of the former and E. primigenius, make it difficult to 

 correlate their dental and osseous structures. 



The vast number of undoubted bones of the Mammoth from Arctic and other regions 

 seem to point to a general slender frame in this species, as compared with the colossal 

 bones of E. meridionalis authenticated from Italian deposits. Again, for example, in 

 the brickearths of the Thames Valley, and in dredging on the east coast (in the latter 

 case, however, E. meridionalis is also found), humeri, femora, pelves, and vertebrae are 

 discovered stouter in proportion, and preserving characters different from the same parts in 

 numerous authenticated instances of the Mammoth's remains, even from the same localities. 

 Partly on that account and partly from their larger size many of these have been con- 

 sidered to have belonged to E. antiquus, which seems to have varied much in dimensions, 

 if we may judge by the molars alone. But specific characters established on slender and 

 squat or large and small bones must, at the best, be considered uncertain means of 

 diagnosis, inasmuch as these conditions are noticeable in varieties of the Asiatic 1 and 

 likely also of the African Elephant as mentioned at p. 45. Perhaps, however, where 

 variability at present is the exception, it was the rule before and during the later Tertiary 

 periods. 



1. CRANIUM. 



I have been unable to find references to an instance of an entire skull of E. antiquus 

 having been discovered in British strata. It is important, however, in comparing the 

 dental characters of E. Namadicus, that the bonnet-shaped vault of the calvarium, as 



1 Falconer, ' Pal. Mem.,' vol. ii, p. 257. 



