﻿ELEPHAS ANTIQUUS — ATLAS. HUMERUS. 



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The above character, taken in connection with a rather stouter bone than that of the 

 typical atlas of the Mammoth, might, as Mr. Davies has supposed, place the atlas and 

 axis referred to by him in the Brady Catalogue with the remains of E. antiquus. 1 It is 

 also worthy of note that this foramen is uncovered in a huge atlas, No. 36,436, B.M., 

 dredged up on the Norfolk coast, and which from its dimensions is comparable with 

 the colossal bones ascribed to Elephas meridionalis, although no doubt individuals of 

 E. antiquus often attained to as great dimensions. 



Dr. Falconer 2 records a scapula three feet three inches in length, along with other 

 bones, obtained from Bracklesham Bay. There are several fragments of large shoulder- 

 blades in both the British Museum and Norwich Museum. This bone, however, does not 

 appear to vary much, if at all, in the recent and extinct species, excepting, perhaps, in the 

 relative length of the glenoid fossa and position of the recurved process of the acromion. 

 The former is relatively broader in the larger of these fossil scapulas as compared with 

 undoubted specimens of E. primigenius and E. Asiaticus, and consequently assimilate 

 to the African Elephant. I have not seen a specimen sufficiently entire to admit of deter- 

 mination of the position of the spinal process with exactness, the latter distinction being 

 seldom preserved in the fossil state. 



4. HUMERUS. 



Whatever may have been the maximum height and general dimensions of E. antiquus — 

 and individuals, judging from teeth alone, must have attained to enormous proportions — 

 we find, as Falconer has pointed out, data establishing the belief that relatively this 

 Flephant, as compared with the Mammoth, was altogether a stouter animal. This is well 

 shown from undoubted specimens generally of the long bones of the E. primigenius, in 

 particular the humerus and femur. The differences were evidently much the same as 

 prevail between the two recent Elephants, so that the Asiatic Elephant and Mammoth 

 would go together, whilst the E. antiquus and the African might be considered relatively 

 broader and stouter animals. It would seem, however, if the bones referred to here 

 belong to E. antiquus, that it was often bulkier than any of the foregoing, and approached 

 E. meridionalis, which was the largest of the three British extinct forms. 



Several undoubted specimens of the humerus of E. primigenius in the British Museum 

 show all the characters of the Asiatic Elephant, and are generally in proportion more 

 slender than that of the African, and than fossil humeri obtained from Grays and other 

 deposits where teeth of E. antiquus are met with. They contrast, moreover, with 

 huge specimens from the Forest Bed and other situations where teeth of E. meridionalis 

 are found. 



1 See 'Catalogue of Mammalian Remains from Ilford,' p. 28, Nos. 9 and 10 D, or Nos. 45,200 and 

 45,201, B.M. 



2 ' Pal. Mem.,' ii, p. 188. 



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