38 



VEETEBEATA. 



No. 145. Elephas primigenras, Blum. 



Eight Tibia. From the same locality and Museum. 



Size, 25 x 10. 



Price, $4.50. 



No. 146. Mastodon giganteus, Cuv. 



Skull and Lower Jaw. Masto- 

 dont remains were first discovered at 

 Albany, N. Y., and described by Dr. 

 Mather in the Philosophical Transac- 

 tions for 1712. The first specimens seen 

 in Europe were found thirty years after, 

 by Longueil, on the edge of a marsh 

 near the Ohio River, and hence the 

 French called the unknown creature, 

 the animal of the Ohio." Bones have 

 since been found as high as 70 ° N. 

 But they mainly frequented a more tem- 

 perate zone ; and we have no evidence that any species was specially fitted like the 

 Mammoth to brave the rigors of an arctic winter. Humboldt ftmnd a tooth near 

 the volcano of Imbaburra, at an elevation of 7,200 feet. The remains occur 

 chiefly in the United States, Europe, and India. Mastodons were the earliest of 

 elephantoid mammals. They are distinguished from the Elephants by their less 

 complex molars ; flatter cranium ; smaller development of the frontal air-cells, 

 presenting a less intelligent character ; more elongated body, but not much, if 

 any, higher ; and limbs proportionately shorter and stronger. The teeth differed 

 less from those of the older tapiroid Pachyderms than do the grinders of the true 

 Elephants. The surface, instead of being cleft into numerous thin plates, was 

 divided into wedge-shaped transverse ridges, and the summit of these were sub- 

 divided into smaller cones, more or less resembling nipples, whence the name. 

 When worn, the protuberances become truncated into a lozenge form. Bronn 

 and Owen state that the Mastodon is characterized by lower incisors (tusks) and 

 by molars which are replaced from back to front, excepting one or more milk-mo. 

 lars ; while in the Elephant there are no inferior incisors, and all the molars are 

 replaced in a horizontal direction. Falconer shows that these generic distinctions 

 are neither absolute nor constant. He makes the Mastodons include all the ele- 

 phantoid species which have the crowns of the molars comparatively simple and 

 uniformly divided into two subequal divisions by a longitudinal cleft ; the ridges 

 limited to three or four in number, and invariably more or less concave across ; 

 the enamel thick (in some specimens three times as thick as in the Mammoth), 

 and in conical or compressed points ; and the valleys between the ridges deep 

 and empty, or with but a sparing quantity of cement. The Elephants, on the 

 other hand, include all the Proboscideans which have the crowns of the molars 

 more complex, and usually wanting in a longitudinal line of division ; the ridges 

 more numerous and less definite, each being composed of a greater number of 

 mammillary points, which are most elevated in the middle, rendering the ridges 

 convex across ; the processes of enamel thinner, higher, and more divided ; and 

 the deep narrow valleys entirely filled up with cement. The deciduous dental 

 formula of the M: is: i 4, or J. c 0. ro s = 7 or 8 ; of the E. it is : i i, c m ?== 



10'0'3 ' ' 3 



7. The persistent dental formula of the M. is : ilorl c o_ <nm 2 or ° ml =8 



1 > 1 -^ 2 > 3 

 -12 ; of the E. it is : il,c « p?n 2 or .?. m 3 — 7-11. 



' ' - 1 2 ' IT 



