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BRITISH FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



larger, and is usually broadly distinctive as compared with the recent species. Unfor- 

 tunately I have been unable to compare it with the same tooth of E. Namadicus. It is 

 sufficiently variable, and shows considerable diversity both in the ridge formula and 

 sculpturing of the disk. 



The last of the milk series being usually subject to considerable discrepancies in all 

 known recent and extinct species of Elephants seems equally if not more various in its 

 ridge formula and dimensions in Elephas antiquus than in any other form. Compared 

 with the same tooth in the larger Maltese form and E. Namadicus, there is the closest 

 affinities, and the thick-plated, narrow, and broad crowns which characterise the varieties 

 of the molars of E. antiquus generally are pronounced in specimens of the ultimate milk 

 tooth. 



The first true molar is equally if not more variable than the last, and it is seemingly 

 subject to unusual discrepancies in Elephas antiquus both as regards dimensions and the 

 number of ridges. Like the ultimate milk, it has its closest ally in the same tooth of 

 the E. Namadicus and Elephas Mnaidriensis ; the latter, however, is considerably 

 smaller. 



The second true molar generally maintains a more equable ridge formula and more 

 constant dimensions than any of the other members of the series, and this is the case to 

 a certain extent in Elephas antiquus. 



In all respects it is indistinguishable from the same tooth in E. Namadicus, and 

 agrees in general features with the second true molar of the E. Mnaidriensis, which 

 has a smaller ridge formula, as far as I have been enabled to determine, and is, of 

 course, relatively a much smaller tooth ; but the crown patterns of the two are indistin- 

 guishable, and it may be likely that second molars of E. Mnaidriensis will be found 

 with a numerical expression of the colliculi equal to E. antiquus, although I have not 

 met with an instance. 



The last true molar, of all others, establishes the dental characteristics of the form 

 of Elephant under consideration far better than any other member of its series. The 

 long narrow crown tapering to a narrow heel posteriorly, with the unusual great 

 height and the well-known worn disk, has been the general accepted molar of E. 

 antiquus, and, as far as these peculiarities extend, they are very characteristic ; but on 

 viewing a vast number of teeth, and on becoming habituated to a manipulation of 

 them, one will soon perceive the divergencies before referred to, which are traceable in 

 every member of the dental series. Confining my observations to collections from the 

 Norfolk Forest Bed and the fluviatile deposits of the Thames Valley between Grays 

 Thurrock and Oxford, I find a broad crown with closely packed ridges, faintly crimped, 

 and not displaying the central expansion and angulation to the extent observed in the 

 long narrow crown. This type represents the usual molar of E. Namadicus, and is seen 

 in the Maltese forms, which, strange to say, present the same three varieties of crown in 

 very much smaller teeth. The broad-crowned variety can be traced gradually merging into 



