﻿ELEPHAS ANTIQUUS— CONCLUSION. 



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either a thick-plated or a narrow crown, which again as gradually assumes the character of 

 the open disk of the African Elephant. I again refer to the probability that these different 

 varieties of crown may be sexual or individual characters, inasmuch as they have been 

 found in the same deposits and often associated. At the same time the possibility of 

 local varieties is quite admissible, and the divergence of the broad crown into the 

 tooth of the Elephas primigenius, on the one hand, and the thick rhomb-like disk 

 into that of the molar of E. Africanus, is also a possible contingency, neither of which, 

 however, can be safely accepted as evidences of the genesis of either species, at all events, 

 without a more extended comparison with the other extinct forms. 



As to fflephas Namadicus, it seems to me, as far as its dentition extends, to 

 be indistinguishable from Elephas antiquus ; indeed, Dr. Falconer appears to have 

 been constantly impressed with the relationship, and had he lived to carry out the 

 brilliant researches with which his name is so intimately associated, it appears to me 

 that, with all his bias in favour of the immutability of species, the conclusion I have 

 come to must at length have been forced upon him. 



The last true molar of the largest Maltese form is a miniature of the same tooth in 

 the Elephas antiquus, with a ridge formula only equal to the second true molar of the 

 latter ; so that whilst the two go hand in hand in respect to ridge formula and crown 

 pattern from the first milk to the first true molar, they seemingly differ in regard to 

 the two remaining members of the series. These differences, however, may not be 

 constant, although I found them general in a number of specimens of the ultimate 

 molar of Elephas Mnaidriensis. No doubt, however, future researches in Southern 

 Europe and eastwards will develop many seemingly discordant points in connection with 

 Elephas antiquus and allied forms. 



The uncertainty in regard to the bones ascribed to Elephas antiquus render the fore- 

 going observations on its osteology of little value. As regards the relative dimensions of 

 maxilla; and mandibles, it would seem that ordinarily they do not differ materially, 

 especially in young and adolescent individuals, from those found with similar stages of 

 growth in the Asiatic and African Elephants ; and, whilst aged individuals attained to 

 colossal proportions, the usual adult may have not averaged over 11 feet in height, or, 

 perhaps, a little over the larger individuals of the African Elephants, which rarely exceeds 

 12 feet at the shoulder. The mandible, being the only available portion of the skull of 

 Elephas antiquus in any way entire, presents the general characters of the African, as far 

 as the contour of the horizontal and ascending rami are concerned, whilst the diasteme is 

 more erect and the chin somewhat rounded, but not to the same extent observed in the 

 Mammoth, which again bears a close resemblance in its mandible to the Asiatic Elephant, 

 as it does generally in the other bones of the skeleton. 



The general resemblances between the mandibles of Elephas antiquus, E. Namadicus, 

 and E. Mnaidriensis are pronounced, whilst E. meridionalis has more in common with 

 E. Africanus. 



