146 



ELEPHANTS 



therium" by him, signifying "the beast of the Lake 

 Meris." This creature is not bigger than a tapir, and had 

 the shape of head and face which we see in that and the 

 ordinary hoofed animals (Fig. 20). It had no trunk, and 

 whilst it had six small and simplified mastodon-like 

 grinders in each half of each jaw, it had six incisors in the 

 upper jaw and a canine or corner tooth on each side. In 



Fig. 19. — Restored model of the skull and lower jaw of the ancestra] 

 elephant Palaeomastodon from the upper Eocene ' strata of the 

 Fayoum Desert, Egypt. It shows the six molar teeth of the upper 

 and lower jaw (left side), the tusk-like upper incisors and the large 

 chisel-like lower incisors in front. 



the lower jaw there were only two large incisors besides 

 the cheek-teeth or grinders. Not the least interesting 

 point about Meritherium is that it tells us which of the 

 front upper teeth have become the huge tusks of the later 

 elephants. Counting from the middle' line there are 

 in Meritherium three incisors right and three left. The , 

 second of these upper teeth on each side is much larger 



