﻿ELEPHAS ANTIQUUS— CONCLUSION. 65 



apparently distinctive of the three forms, and doubtless more extended means of com- 

 parison will afford conclusive evidences on that head. 



The geological and geographical distributions of these forms as far as known are 

 suggestive, and may admit of greater extension. At present the Elephas meridionalis 

 has not been identified in British deposits more recent than the Pre-glacial beds 

 of the Norfolk Coast, where it is associated with the E. antiquus, whilst the latter is 

 also found in more recent deposits of Pleistocene age in conjunction with the remains 

 of the Elephas primigenius, which has been asserted by several authorities, including the 

 late Dr. Falconer, to be also of Pre-glacial origin. 1 This statement, however, is not 

 clearly proven as far as England is concerned, whereas in Scotland, and probably in one 

 instance in Cavan, Ireland, teeth of the Mammoth are said to have been found below the 

 Boulder Clay. 2 No doubt the future will clear up a great deal of obscurity with reference 

 to the distribution of these forms in space and in time. Suffice it for the present that, 

 whether they merge into one another or into other forms, it is evident that individually 

 these so-called species are subject to considerable variation in the characters of their 

 dental elements, and in particular the form I have attempted to describe in the fore- 

 going pages, the distinguishing features of whose dentition and osteology I shall now 

 finally proceed to recapitulate briefly. 



The general features of the incisor teeth have yet to be defined, whether they were 

 straight as has been alleged, or much curved like the more arcuated defensors of the 

 Mammoth, or, as in the Meridional and recent Elephants, they preserved a gentler curve; 

 moreover, the enamel covering of the deciduous incisor of the African and Maltese 

 Elephants has not apparently been observed on the milk-tusk of any other species. 



The molars referred to Elephas antiquus are, as a rule, both narrower and higher 

 than obtain in the two other British fossil species, whilst the conditions of the worn disk, 

 to wit, the crimping of the machgerides, and central expansions and angulations, maintain 

 features broadly distinctive as compared with them. The number of ridges are also 

 characteristic both individually as regards the successional teeth and in the aggregate of 

 the entire laminae of the dental series. Such are the main points of difference in the denti- 

 tion, modifications of which lead towards the Elephas meridionalis on the one hand, and 

 E. primigenius by the broad crown, which in a more pointed degree assimilates to the 

 typical molar of Elephas Namadicus of India. 



The ante-penultimate, or what is usually named the first, milk molar shows 

 generally a lower ridge formula than that of the Mammoth and Asiatic Elephant, but 

 agrees in this respect with the same tooth in the Meridional and Maltese Elephants ; in 

 its general characters we find it comes close to the Maltese forms ; whilst that of E. 

 Namadicus is unknown. 



The second milk molar agrees in outline and characters with the Maltese, only it is 



1 'Pal. Mem.,' vol. ii, pp. 240 and 586. 



2 Bald, • Mem. Wernerian Soc.,' vol. iv, pp. 64 and 58. 



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