66 GUIDE TO THE FOSSIL MAMMALS AND BIEDS. 



Wall-case fragments, and plaster casts of skulls from the Cairo Museum, 

 4S " are placed in Pier-case 43. 



The fossils, so far as known, show therefore that the 

 earliest forerunners of the elephants were small marsh- 

 dwellers which lived on a succulent food in the African 

 region. They gradually increased in size, without essentially 

 altering their limbs and body ; but as their legs lengthened 

 and their neck shortened, their face and chin gradually 

 became elongated to reach the ground for browsing. When 

 this strange adaptation had reached its maximum degree, the 

 chin suddenly shrivelled, leaving the flexible, toothless face 

 without any support. Thus arose the unique proboscis of the 

 elephants, which has become prehensile by stages which 

 cannot be traced, because soft parts are not preserved in 

 ordinary geological formations. 



For comparison, a stuffed modern Indian elephant, and a 

 skeleton of the same are placed in the middle of the Gallery 

 (stands D, E) ; while the head of an African elephant, skulls 

 and tusks are arranged in the bay between Pier-cases 36 

 and 37. Eecent skulls and teeth, some described by Corse 

 in the " Philosophical Transactions of the Eoyal Society " 

 more than a century ago, are also placed in Pier-case 28. 



Order VI.— RODENTIA. 



Table-case Fossil remains of rodents or gnawing mammals are common 

 in Tertiary formations throughout the world, and a typical 

 collection is exhibited in Table-case 16. The extinct kinds, 

 however, do not differ much from those now living, although 

 they can be traced back as far as the Middle Eocene period. 



Among the fossil remains of Sciuromorpha, those of the 

 beaver {Castor) are conspicuous. This animal first appears 

 in the Upper Pliocene of Italy, France, and England ; and 

 the common ft fiber had a remarkably wide range in Europe 

 during the Pleistocene period. Good specimens are shown 

 from the Fen-land (Fig. 63) and from the valley of the Lea, 

 Essex. It does not appear to have been exterminated in 

 Britain until about the twelfth century, and there are still 

 allusions to it in some names of places (e.g., Beverley and 

 Nant-yr-afancwm). Trogontherium cuvieri is a giant beaver, 

 which ranged from Eussia to England during early Pleistocene 

 times. A skull, jaws, and other remains from the Norfolk 

 Forest Bed are exhibited, with plaster casts of a Eussian 

 skull and mandible of the same species. 



