HISTORY OF THE MASTODON 
described (1901) being a small and primitive type discovered in Egypt. 
This seems to confirm the prevailing opinion that the group originated 
in the Old World and spread to America by way of Siberia. 
Two or more species belong to South America (Patagonia), 
where no other elephant has thus far been found. It is probable that 
several species lived in North America, but the one best known and com- 
monly in mind when the term is used is Afastodon americanus. This species 
seems to have ranged over all the United States and southern Canada, and 
to have been numerous, for its teeth and bones, in a more or Jess perfect con- 
dition, are repeatedly found. A dozen or more mounted skeletons are on 
exhibition in museums in New York, Chicago, Pittsburg, Cambridge, 
Albany, and elsewhere. Careful comparison and study of these and other 
specimens show that this mastodon at least must have had the general form 
and appearance of a modern elephant, with a somewhat heavier body and 
flatter forehead than that of the mammoth or Indian elephant; nor did its 
height exceed theirs on the average — if anything it was less. The tusks, 
too, were of similar length (nine feet, measured along the outer curve, indi- 
cating an old and large male), and they had a characteristic tendency to 
curl upward, sometimes almost completing a circle. 
“Tt is probable that the animal, at any rate in the more northerly parts 
of its range, was warmly clothed like the mammoth, although there is not 
much direct evidence of it beyond the discovery, many years ago, of a large 
mass of woolly brown hair buried in bog in Ulster County, N.Y., in 
apparent connection with mastodon remains. Several of the most com- 
plete skeletons known have been obtained from that region, where animals 
had become mired in swampy valleys. The disappearance of this numer- 
ous and widespread species is as incomprehensible as in the case of the 
mammoth and the South American horse. That it existed until recent 
conditions were established is plain. The food remains in its stomach have 
been repeatedly analyzed, and found to consist of herbage, bark, and leaves 
of the same kinds as now grow in the place where its bones lay.... It is the 
opinion of competent judges that remnants of the herds survived the advent 
of mankind into North America; but the evidence is not indubitable.” 
Mastodon. 
More anciently there existed a codrdinate family, the Dino- 
theriide, the remains of whose single genus are en- Dinothe- 
tombed in the Tertiary strata of Europe and Asia. 
The dinothere, says Beddard, occupies the most primitive position 
among the Proboscidea, but cannot be considered an ancestor of the ele- 
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