MONOGRAPH 



ON THE 



BRITISH FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



ELEPHAS MERIDIONALIS, 



I. INTRODUCTORY. 



The differentiation of a species of fossil Elephant distinct from the Elephas primi- 

 genius, to which all teeth and bones referable to the genus were supposed to belong, was 

 first surmised by Nesti from discoveries made in the Valley of the Arno and the neigh- 

 bourhood of Rome. 1 Subsequent researches by Cuvier, Croizet, De Blainville, and Owen, 

 are fully detailed by Falconer, 2 and the more pertinent points are referred to in the 

 previous parts of this Monograph; suffice it to state that, whilst Nesti and Croizet main- 

 tained the specific identity of E. meridionalis, the three other palaeontologists adhered to 

 the opinion that the evidences he had adduced were not sufficient. It was left to Dr. 

 Falconer, in 1844, when engaged in studying the Proboscidean remains collected by 

 himself and others in Northern India, to correlate certain characters of the molars with 

 those of similar relics from British strata. The result of these comparisons he has 

 embodied in the Essays I have so frequently referred to in this work. 



In his classification of the Proboscidea from their forms of dentition, he includes the 

 E. meridionalis with E. planifrons, of India, E. priscus (a species he subsequently with- 

 drew as being only a variety of E. antiquus), E. Africanus, and E. Melilensis, in his sub- 

 genus Loxodon, which he again subdivides into two groups, distinguished by their well- 

 marked dental characters. Thus, E. meridionalis and E. planifrons have the " colliculi 

 grosse digitati, adamante crasso," and differ in these respects from all other Elephants. 

 The value he attached to the teeth alone as diagnostic of species of Proboscidea is appa- 

 rent throughout all his writings ; and, as I have elsewhere observed, his system of 

 taxonomy is formed entirely from dental conditions, as shown by the distinctive cha- 

 racters of the three sub-genera Stegodon, Loxodon, and Euelephas. I have already 3 



1 ' Annale des Museo di Firenze,' torn, i, et ' Nuovo Giomale de Letterat.,' torn. xi. 



2 ' Palseontological Memoirs,' vol. ii, p. 104. 



3 Page 78 and elsewhere. 



2G 



