1870. ] OWEN—CHINESE FOSSIL MAMMALS. 421 
boscidia indicated in my ‘ Odontography’ as “transitional forms” *, 
since defined by Falconer under the generic name Stegodont, of 
which he gives as one character, “ the enamel is very thick, and 
the coronal interspaces, in most species, are filled up with an 
enormous quantity of cement”{—an admission of exception which 
significantly points to the difficulty of defining or circumscribing 
the generic groups in the grand gradational series of modifications 
of the Proboscidian order, for the knowledge of which science is 
mainly indebted to Kaup, Clift, and Falconer. 
STEGODON ORIENTALIS, Ow. 
The molar of Stegodon sinensis, above described, alleged to be 
«from marly beds in the vicinity of Shanghai,” showed by its colour 
and mineralized condition that it had been derived from some such, 
probably tertiary, deposit. 
The portions of proboscidian molars which I have next to notice 
are in a less altered condition. The dentine retains its original 
white colour, and has only lost its soluble constituent, which causes 
it to adhere, like chalk, to the tongue; the enamel also has its recent 
pearly tint; a thick mass of cement appears to have been retained 
in the intervals of the coronal ridges. 
One of these ridges, with the contiguous halves of two others, 
- form a molar two inches nine lines in breadth (Pl. XX VILL. figs. 1 
& 2); a portion of a posterior ridge with a low basal heel, from the 
same, or the same-sized tooth, and the last two ridges, witha terminal 
half ridge or talon, of a milk-molar, one inch and a half in breadth 
(ab. figs. 3 & 4), represent the present species. 
These fragments form part of the series of teeth obtained by Mr. 
Swinhoe, and said to be ‘from a cave, near the city of Chung-king-foo, 
in the province of Sze-chuen.” ‘The condition of the fragments agrees 
with the statement, viz. that they were from a cavern. 
In the largest fragment a longitudinal extent of grinding-surface 
of two inches includes the summits of three ridges. The basal 
breadth of the ridge (ib. fig. 2) 6 6 is one inch; its height (unworn) 
is one inch four lines, measured along the sloping side. One slope, 
I think the anterior, is rather more inclined than the other. The 
ridge (ib. fig. 1) aa runs straight, or nearly so, across the tooth ; 
the entire ridge is cleft at the summit into about a dozen mamille 
by as many vertical grooves; the dentine rises into the base of each 
mamilla. The enamel (¢) averages two lines in thickness. 
From the above-defined characters it is plain that we have here, 
also, parts of a ‘transitional Mastodon,” in other words, a species of 
Stegodon, Fr. In the straight, or nearly straight, direction of the 
coronal ridges, and the absence of any trace of mid cleft, these 
molar fragments more resemble the teeth of Stegodon Clift, St. in- 
signis, and St. ganesa of Falconer than does the St. sinensis; and 
* ‘Odontography,’ Proboscidia, Section 228. 
t “Elephas we divide into three sectional groups, viz. Stegodon, being the 
species which Owen calls Transitional Mastodons, the M. elephantoides of Clift, 
and of which there are three, and perhaps four, Indian fossil species.”’—Paleon- 
tol, Memoirs, vol. i. p. 20. 
{ Paleontological Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 9. 
