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BRITISH FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



at its lower part is 4 inches ; unfortunately this measurement is not attainable in the 

 gigantic pelvis which Dr. Ealconer considered might have belonged to the colossal E. 

 meridionalis. The Yarmouth specimen therefore being the more slender bone and 

 preserving the constricted upper portion of the foramen ovale of the Mammoth and 

 Asiatic Elephant belongs no doubt to the former. 



9. FEMUR. 



It is extremely probable that no long bone of Elephas antiquus would display more dis- 

 tinctive characters than its femur. Although fragments of both the shaft and extremities of 

 thigh bones of large Elephants are contained in the Norwich Museum, it does not appear 

 to me possible at present to differentiate their characters with certainty. A huge femur 

 in the Gunn Collection, referred by Ealconer 1 to the Elephas meridionalis, is from the 

 Eorest Bed. Both the extremities are wanting. The shaft does not seem to have lost 

 much of its external layers, and gives a girth of 20 inches at the middle. The entire 

 length of the specimen is about 47 inches. In the latter respect it far eclipses any 

 femur of the Mammoth I have seen ; at the same time, in thickness it is assuredly not 

 in proportion to the usual robustness of the long bones inferred to belong to Elephas 

 antiquus. 



Two distal epiphyses of femora from Walton in Essex are preserved in the Museum 

 of the Geological Society of London. One of them is recorded by Falconer as belonging 

 to the Elephas antiquus.' 1 



It seems, as far as I have been enabled to determine from materials, that the 

 condyles do not converge closely in the African Elephant E. Mnaidriensis, 3 and in the 

 femora from Walton ; and it will be seen by comparing the figures or specimens of the 

 same bone of E. Namadicus 4, that in all there is a pronounced resemblance, whilst in 

 the Mammoth and E. Asiaticus the condyles are more apart. 



With reference to the Walton epiphysis, which like its fellow is that of a young or 

 adolescent Elephant, the internal articular surface is 17 inches in the antero-posterior by 

 5 inches in the transverse diameter ; the external condyle being 14' 7 inches by 

 4*6 inches. The former measurements, of course, include the patellar aspect as well as 

 the tibial. The greatest length of the Nerbudda Valley femur of E. Namadicus, 

 according to Mr. Prinsep, was no less than 5 feet 3 inches, with a girth at the head 

 of 2 feet 3 inches, and a breadth across the lower condyles of 11 inches, the latter 

 measurement being T4 inch greater than that of the Walton condyles. 



1 ' Pal. Mem.,' vol. ii, p. 144. 



2 Ibid., vol. i, p. 490 ; and « F. A. S.,' pi. liii, fig. 13. 



3 • Trans. Zool. Soc. London,' vol. ix, pi. xiv, fig. 2 a, and p. 60. 



4 ' F. A. S.,' pi. lvi, figs. 1, 5, and 6; and 'Pal. Mem.,' vol. i, pp. 495,496. 



