SUBORDER D SIEENIA 263 



high and numerous, strongly compressed ridges, the anterior and posterior 

 surfaces of which are parallel. 



Fossil elephants first appear in the Pliocene of India {E. planifrons 

 and hysudricus Falconer and Cautley) ; thence they seem to have spread 

 toward the west, and also occur in the Pliocene of Europe [E. meridionulis 

 Nesti). They attained their most extensive geographical range, however, in 

 the later Pliocene and Pleistocene, dui'ing which periods they inhabited 

 Europe, northern Africa, Asia, North America and South America. The 

 identification of species is difficult when, as is usually the case, only teeth 

 and incomplete skeletal remains occur. 



According to Gaudry, E. meridionalis reached a height of about four metres. 

 E. antiquus Falconer, which seems to have been equally large, characterises 

 the earlier Pleistocene of Europe, but together with E. meridionalis also occurs 

 in the uppermost Pliocene. E. mnaidriensis Leith Adams, and E. melitensis 

 Falconer from Sicily and Malta, are, according to Pohlig, dwarf races of 

 U. antiqmis. By far the most abundant species of fossil elephant is the 

 mammoth, E. primigenius Blumenbach (Figs. 349, 350). Its powerful tusks 

 are from ten to fifteen feet long, strongly curved outward and upward, and 

 sometimes weigh 250 pounds. The cheek teeth are deep, broader than in 

 E. antiquus, the ridges lamelliform, narrow, closely appressed, numerous, and 

 the enamel on the anterior and posterior surfaces less copiously folded. 

 With the exception of Scandinavia and Finland, remains of the mammoth 

 are distributed in the Pleistocene throughout Europe, in northern Africa, 

 northern Asia as far as Lake Baikal and the Caspian Sea ; also in China 

 and Japan, and in North America. Entire carcases with long black hair 

 and undercoat of wool have been found in the frozen soil of Siberia. One 

 carcase, preserved in petroleum, was found at Starunia, Galicia. E. primigenius 

 is replaced by E. cokimbi Falconer in the middle part of North America, 

 and by E. imperator Leidy in the south-western part of the same continent. 



Suborder D. SIRENIA. Sea Cows.^ 



Thick - skinned, naked, short - necked, monophyodont herbivorous mammals. 

 Narial openings directed forward. Manns paddle- shaped. Pes absent. Caudal 

 fin horizontcd. Two pectoral mammae. 



The Sirenians are represented by large aquatic animals, which live on the 

 sea-coast or in the under-current of the larger streams. Their cylindrical 

 body with its horizontal caudal fin, the modification of the anterior extremities 

 into flexible paddle- shaped organs, and the atrophy of the pes recall the 



^ Abel, 0., Die Sirenen der mediterraiien Tertiarbildungen Osterreichs. Abh. K. K. Geol. 

 Reichsanst., 1904, vol. xix. Desmostylus, ein mariner Miiltituberculate. Acta Zoologica (Stock- 

 holm), vol. iii., 1922. — Andrews, C. W., Catalogue of the Tertiary Vertebrata of the Fayum, 

 1906. — Gapellini, Giov., Mem. Accad. Sci. di Bologna, 1872, 3 ser., vol. i. Ibid., 1886, 4 ser., 

 vol. vii. — Cope, E. I)., Amer. Naturalist, 1890. — Deperet, Ch., Sitzber. Akad. Wien, 1895. — 

 Dep6ret, Q., and Roman, F., Le Felsinotherium Serresi. Arch. Mas. Hist. Nat. Lyon, 1920. — 

 Dollo, L., Sur les Sireniens de Boom. Bull. Soe. Beige de Geol., 1889. — Hay, 0. P., Desmo- 

 stylus. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., Washington, 191.5. — Kaup, J., Beitr. zur Kenntnis der urweltl. 

 Saugetiere (Halitherium), 185.0, Hefte 2 and 5. — Lepsius, R., Halitherium Scbinzi. Die fossile 

 Sirene des Mainzer Beckens. Darmstadt, ]882. — Mattheiv, W. D., New Sirenian from Porto Rieo. 

 Ann. New York Acad. Sci., vol. xxvii., 1916. — Stromer, E., Hiiftbeine der Sirenia nnd Archaeoceti. 

 Sitzber. bayer. Akad. Wiss., Miinchen, 1921. — Yoshiwara, S., and hvasaki, J., Jouru. of Imperial 

 University, Tokyo, 1902, vol. xvi. 



