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BRITISH FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



shown in two skulls in the British Museum, and described and figured by Falconer, 1 if 

 absolutely a natural character, must be considered as eminently characteristic and dis- 

 tinctive of, at all events, the Indian specimens ; at the same time, whilst admitting the 

 singular depression of the frontal in the situation above stated, it is probable, as in the huge 

 cranium of Elephas insignia also in the Sewalik Collection, British Museum, that the same 

 agency may have distorted the calvarium in question, and thus exaggerated the frontal 

 hollow, which, judging however from another and smaller cranium, was more pronounced 

 than in the Asiatic species. In the absence of similar data in E. antiquus, I can only merely 

 refer to the above and the palate specimen of E. Namadicus in the College of Surgeons, 

 already noticed at p. 43. It may be stated, however, as regards relative dimensions, that 

 these two crania differ in the latter being larger, whilst the British Museum specimen 

 from the smaller tusks may, as suggested by Falconer, have probably belonged to a 

 female. 



A cranium and mandible, with other bones of E. antiquus, are in the Museum at 

 Rome. 3 A few palate specimens of youthful individuals, with teeth in situ, are not 

 uncommon in British collections. 



The upper jaw, containing the ultimate milk molars, described at p. 17, and shown in 

 Plate I, fig. 4, furnishes no specific characters as regards the region represented. When 

 compared with a palatal aspect of an Indian Elephant, No. 2666, in the Royal College 

 of Surgeons of England, where the third milk molar is in full wear and fourteen 

 inches of tusk protruding beyond the alveolus, the two are found to agree nearly in 

 the distance between the molars in front, at the middle, and behind, the fossil only 

 exceeding the recent species to a small extent, which would agree with still more advanced 

 stage of wear of the teeth of the latter, so that individually the maxillse of the E. antiquus 

 and the Asiatic, as far as the above stage of growth extends, presented about the same 

 dimensions. Another palate specimen of the Indian Elephant in the same collection, 

 with the last milk molar not so far advanced, gives nearly the same admeasurements. 



2. MANDIBLE. 



The various stages of growth are represented in several rami. The jaw, Plate V, 

 fig. 2, containing the penultimate or second milk molar, No. 21,310, B. M., described at 

 p. 15, when compared with the ramus, No. 2668, of an Asiatic Elephant, in the 

 Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, presents no appreciable differ- 

 ences as regards dimensions, the two jaws holding teeth of the same stage of growth and 

 about the same condition of wear. The fossil is a left ramus, with the penultimate milk 

 molar entire, the two fang sockets of the antepenultimate in front and a fragment of the 



1 ' Pal. Mem.,' vol i, pp. 115 and 435 and 436 ; ' F. A. S.,' xii a and xii b, and pi. xxiv a, fig. 4. 



2 Ibidem, <F. A. S.,'pl. xvii, fig. 3. 



3 Falconer, ' Pal. Mem.,' vol. ii, p. 187. 



