THE 



AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 



Art. XXL — The Evolution of the Elephant* • by Richard S. 



Lull. 



Contents : 



Part I. General discussion. 



Part II. Evolutionary sequence. 



Part III. Migrations of the Proboscidea. 



Part I. 



The modern word elephant, which may be used compre- 

 hensively to include all of the proboscidians, comes from the 

 Greek e\e<£a? (eXetyavr), a word first used in the literature by 

 Herodotus, the father of history. The origin of the word 

 is somewhat a matter of doubt, certain authorities deriving it 

 from the Hebrew eleph, an ox ; others from the Hebrew ihdh, 

 Sanskrit ibhas, an elephant, comparing this with the Latin 

 ebur, meaning ivory. Another Sanskrit word is hastin, ele- 

 phant, from hasta, a hand or trunk. Thus the ancients 

 emphasized the three characteristics of the proboscidians, size, 

 the tusks, and the trunk, which are the most striking features 

 of the most remarkable of beasts. 



The proboscidians may be defined as large, trunk-bearing 

 mammals, with pillar-like limbs, short neck and huge head, 

 often with protruding ivory tusks, the modified upper and, in 

 earlier, extinct types, the lower incisor teeth. The probo- 

 scidians constitute a sub-order of the great group of ungulates 

 or hoofed mammals, yet have their nearest living allies in 

 creatures strangely remote in size, form and environment from 

 the lordly elephant, for the paleontologist, in his ardent search 

 for family trees other than his own, often discloses some 

 seemingly paradoxical relationships which completely upset 

 the older ideas of classification. Explorations have recently 

 brought to light evidence to show that the sea-living Sirenia, 

 whose American representative is the Florida manatee, can 

 claim close relationship with the elephants, though nothing 



* An earlier paper in the same series, on the Evolution of the Horse Family, 

 was published in the number for March, 1907. 



Am. Jour. Sci. — Fourth Series, Vol. XXV, No. 147.— March, 1908. 

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