﻿ELEPHAS ANTIQUUS— FOREFOOT. PELVIS. 



01 



longer and broader measurements. A third metacarpal from Eschscholtz Bay of 

 undoubtedly a full-grown Mammoth, when compared with the same bone in the foot here 

 referred to, furnishes the following: — The length in the former is 8 inches, whereas in 

 the latter it is 10 inches, whilst the maximum girth at the middle of the shaft is 10 to 

 10*4 inches. The marginal facet is 4*8 X 2 to 5 X 3 inches. The distal articular 

 aspect is antero-posteriorly by tape 5*6 to 6"2 inches, and 3 to 34 inches in breadth. 



Many fore-feet bones of different dimensions from the Norfolk Beds are to be seen in 

 the Norwich Museum ; it is at present, however, impossible to arrive at just conclusions 

 from these remains until the characters of the skeleton of E. primigenius have been 

 accurately determined. 



The third metacarpal, found at Montreuil, near Paris, 1 in the same deposits with the 

 gigantic humerus and molars already referred to at pp. 58, 41, and 19, measures 

 26 centimetres in length and 28 centimetres in circumference at the middle of the shaft. 



A magnum of smaller proportions than the Grays specimen is also figured and 

 described by Belgrand ; 2 it is from the sand pits of Chevaleret, and has a maximum 

 length of 0-146 m., and breadth of 0-117 m. 



I mention these instances of the remains from the Paris basin, as they agree very well 

 with the bones from the Thames Valley, both of which exuviae evidently belonged to 

 enormous elephants, and in all probability to large individuals of Elephas antiquus. 



8. PELVIS. 



I have seen no authenticated pelvis of the Elephas antiquus. There is the huge Os 

 innominatum, described by Falconer, 3 in Mr. Gunn's Collection from the Forest Bed, 

 and another of the right side of E. primigenius dredged off Yarmouth. 



The differences in these two as regards dimensions are sufficient of themselves to 

 indicate two distinct forms of Elephants. Mr. Busk has pointed out 4 that the foramen 

 ovale is narrowest above in the E. Asiaticus, and the reverse in the E. Africanus ; and I 

 find from data in the British Museum, and the portion of the pelvis above referred to from 

 Yarmouth, that the Mammoth assimilates to the Asiatic species, whilst it will be seen 

 that E. Namadicus 5 comes closer to the African, to which possibly the E. antiquus also 

 appertains, as it does in the character of many of the bones of the extremities. 



Unfortunately the foramen ovale is not entire in the large pelvis from the Forest Bed ; 

 the height of the opening, however, is no less than 10'5 inches, whereas in the smaller 

 pelvis from Yarmouth it is only 7 inches. Again, the breadth of the upper portion of the 

 oval opening is 7 inches in the former and only 3 inches in the latter, whilst the breadth 



1 Belgrand, ' Basin de Paris,' pi. xiii. 2 Op. cit., pi. liii. 3 ' Pal. Mem.,' vol. ii, p. 142. 



4 « Trans. Zool. Soc. London,' vol. vi, p. 242. 5 ' F. A. S.,' pi. lvi, fig. 8. 



