﻿r>6 



BRITISH FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



the other hand, whilst E. primigenius differs from all other species in having a very 

 broad and rounded chin, and usually an open expansive gutter, the small rostrum and 

 nearly vertical diasteme are in keeping with the foregoing and E. Asiaticus. Again, 

 as in the latter, the contour of the border of the ascending ramus behind is circular and 

 does not display the parabolic curve observed in the others and also in E. Africanus and 

 in E. meridionalis, and apparently in E. Hysudricus. The beak is well developed in 

 E. Asiaticus, and very pronounced in the M Africanus, E. meridionalis, and E. Hysudricus. 



Thus E. antiquus with E. Namadicus and to somewhat less extent the Maltese Ele- 

 phants present similar characters in the lower jaws ; the Mammoth and Asiatic assimilate 

 to each other also in some important characters, whilst a clear relationship is maintained 

 between the same parts in the E. Africanus, E. meridionalis, and E. Hysudricus. The 

 extent of the alveolar margin from the anterior aspect of the ascending ramus to the 

 diasteme, both relatively and absolutely, in comparison with the breadth of the ascending 

 ramus, is apparently greater in E. antiquus, E. meridionalis, E. Africanus, and the 

 Maltese forms than in E. primigenius and E. Asiaticus. The deep-rounded chin so 

 marked in the Mammoth is less apparent in E. antiquus ; and, whilst the small rostrum in 

 both assimilate, we have it produced in the E. meridionalis and E. Africanus, and some- 

 times with a downward course. The rostrum varies in size, however, in specimens of 

 the recent Elephants, and may therefore be omitted as characteristic of any one species ; 

 but I repeat, as regards the configuration generally of the mandible of E. antiquus, E. 

 Namadicus, and the E. Mnaidriensis, it seems to me that there is a very close relationship 

 between the three. 



3. ATLAS. 



On comparing this bone in the recent and the following extinct Elephants, there does 

 not appear much to note of a persistent character in any one species. The contours of 

 the neural and odontoid canals present no invariable distinctions ; but the foramen for the 

 first cervical nerve is seemingly peculiar in certain fossil atlases from Ilford and Slade 

 Green, as compared with many specimens from the former situation, and referable to 

 E. 'primigenius. In those exceptional atlases the foramen for the above-named nerve 

 opens directly on the side of the arch internally, so that it is invisible on looking down 

 upon the neural canal, and this is apparent also in an atlas of the African Elephant, and 

 also in the one I have referred to the Elephas Melitensis} In two typical specimens of 

 atlases of the Mammoth in the Beechy Collection, British Museum, from the Arctic 

 regions, as also in several from Ilford, and many in the Norwich Museum, the foramen is 

 quite visible when the bone is placed in the above position, and the same is seemingly 

 the case in the Asiatic Elephant. 



1 ' Trans. Zool. Soc. London,' vol. ix, pi. xiii, fig. I a. 



