JR. S. Lull — Evolution of the Elephant. 181 



The increase in bulk and height, together with the shorten- 

 ing of the neck necessitated by the increasing weight of the 

 head with its great battery of tnsks, necessitated the develop- 

 ment of a prehensile upper lip which gradually evolved into 

 a proboscis for food-gathering. The elongation of the lower 

 jaw implies a similar elongation of this proboscis- in order that 

 the latter may reach beyond the tusks. The trunk did not, 

 however, reach maximum utility until the shortening jaw, 

 removing the support from beneath, left it pendant as in the 

 living elephant. 



The change in the form of the skull developed pari passu 

 with the growth of the tusks and trunk, as it is merely a 

 mechanical adaptation to give greater leverage in the wielding 

 these organs. It may readily be seen that these changes 

 curiously interact upon one another ; the result of the evolution 

 of its parts being the development of a most marvelous whole. 



Elephants Contemporary with Man. 



Aside from the species of elephant now living, at least three 

 extinct types were coeval with mankind, one distinctively 

 American, the mastodon, Mammut americanum,, one confined 

 to Europe and southern Asia, Elephas anliquus, while the 

 third, the hairy mammoth, Elephas primigenius, was common 

 to both and to northern Asia as well. Of these the mammoth 

 is without exception the best known of all prehistoric animals, 

 for not only have its bones and teeth been found in immense 

 numbers, but, in several instances, frozen carcasses have been 

 discovered nearly or quite intact, the hair, hide, and even the 

 viscera and muscles wonderfully preserved. In many instances 

 these were irrevocably lost or were devoured by the dogs and 

 wolves or by the natives themselves : two specimens have been 

 preserved however and are now in the St. Petersburg zoolog- 

 ical museum. 



Of these one was found in the Lena Delta in Siberia in 1799 

 and secured in 1806. The skeleton with patches of hide 

 adhering to the head and feet may still be seen, but the flesh 

 of the animal was devoured by wolves and bears after being 

 preserved in Nature's cold storage warehouse for thousands of 

 years (see fig. 26). In 1901 another specimen was found at 

 Beresovka, Siberia, 800 miles west of Behring strait and 60 

 miles within the arctic circle. It is supposed that this creature 

 slipped into a crevasse in the ice which may have been covered 

 by vegetation as in the Malaspina glacier of Alaska. That the 

 poor brute died a violent death is certain from the fracture of 

 the hip and one foreleg, and the presence of unswallowed grass 

 between the teeth and upon the tongue. A great mass of 

 clotted blood in the chest tells how suddenly the Reaper over- 



