﻿ELEPHAS ANTIQUUS— MANDIBLE. 



53 



empty alveolus of the third milk molar behind. The diasteme is not so erect as in the 

 adult, nor so reclinate as in a ramus of the E. meridionalis in the British Museum, and 

 in the African Elephant, and is more in keeping with that of the Asiatic ; whilst its 

 mentaiy foramina are close to the margin. The beak is blunt, and the horizontal 

 ramus produced ; the latter resembles that of the African Elephant. These two latter 

 characters, however, do not seem invariable in any one species, and are not to be relied on. 



The mandible, No. ^|i 9 , B. M., described and figured by Falconer, 1 the molars of 

 which have been already referred to at p. 21, represents the adolescent stage of growth 

 where the first true molar is nearly in full wear. The mentary foramina are irregular in 

 their positions — a condition more or less common to all known species of the genus, 

 although in the African they are usually not so close to the free margin of the diasteme 

 as in the Asiatic, Mammoth, and other species. Their numbers also vary. A large 

 anterior dental foramen is very generally placed about two inches below the alveolus in 

 front, with smaller openings along the side of the diasteme. The latter foramina are 

 often irregular as regards size and numbers, even on opposite sides of the same mandible. 

 In the above jaw the horizontal ramus is prolonged, the diasteme is erect, and the 

 rostrum was apparently short. In all these characters it agrees with the Asiatic and the 

 Maltese pigmy form named E. Melitensis? A jaw of the Asiatic Elephant, with 

 apparently the same tooth in full wear, No. 2672, of the Osteological Collection, Royal 

 College of Surgeons of England, is not so large. This, however, may be a small 

 individual ; at all events, the discrepancies with reference to dimensions are not such as 

 would accord a great disproportion in the sizes, at the adolescent age, of the two 

 elephants. 



The lower jaw containing the second true molar, 28,114, B. M., already noticed at 

 p. 29, is suggestive : — 1st. It shows that the beak was not so prolonged as often 

 obtains in the African Elephant. 2nd. That the diasteme was nearly erect, as in 

 E. Namadicus, E. Asiaticus, E. primigenius, and the Maltese Elephants. The other left 

 ramus with the second molar, 33,366 B. M., described at p. 29, confirms the character 

 of the last as regards the direction of the diasteme ; the rostrum is lost. Here the two 

 mentary foramina are placed within one and two inches of the free margin of the diasteme. 



In the Jermyn Street Museum there is a lower jaw containing the second molars 

 described at p. 28, but it is too much injured in front to admit of comparisons. 

 Another lower jaw in the same collection has portions of the fifth and last molars in situ. 

 The gutter is entire and displays a well-developed rostrum, but not so prolonged as in the 

 African, yet fully as large as in many of the Asiatic species. The diasteme was evidently 

 nearly vertical. These two jaws are from Grays Thurrock, and also belonged to full- 

 grown Elephants. 



A lower jaw containing the last true molars, No. 33,796, B. M., from Barrow-on-Soar, 



1 ' Pal. Mem.,' vol. ii, p. 183 ; ' F. A. S.,' pi. xiii a, fig. 5. 



2 'Trans. Zool. Soc. London,' vol. ix, p. 42, pi. vi, fig. 1 to 4. 



