﻿xxxiv INTRODUCTION. 



Such is a brief summary of the results of Dr. Falconer's classification. Previous to 

 this the elephants were divided into three species — E. Indicus, E. Africanus, and, lastly, the 

 fossil species E. primigenius. Under the head of the latter all the remains of the fossil 

 elephants were described by Baron Cuvier, M. de Blainville,- 1 and Professor Owen, 

 and considered to be merely varieties by MM. Gervais, Pictet, and other palaeon- 

 tologists. 



The species of elephant that lived in Britain during the Pleistocene period are four in 

 number — Elephas {Loxodori) prisons, Goldfuss; E. {Loxodon) meridionalis, Nesti; E. {Euele- 

 phas) anliquus, Falc, and E. {Euelephas) primigenius, Blum. 



1. Species Elephas {Loxodon) prisons, Goldfuss. — The sections of the ridges on the 

 worn surface of the crown present a lozenge-shaped outline and a mesial expansion. Teeth 

 bearing this characteristic have been identified by Dr. Falconer from the Pleistocene 

 brick-earths of Grays Thurrock, in Essex, and from an uncertain locality in the Thames 

 Valley, and from the Norfolk coast, between Cromer and Lowestoft, near Happisburgh. 2 

 The latter was probably derived from the horizon of the Forest Bed. The species occurs 

 in Italy in the Pliocene strata of the Romagna, and possibly in central France. 



2. Species Elephas {Loxodon) meridionalis, Nesti. — This species of elephant, first of 

 all named by Nesti, from the rich deposit in the Val d'Arno, and accurately defined by 

 Dr. Falconer in the essay above cited, is characterised by the possession of the following 

 ridge formula, exclusive of talons : — 



Milk Molars. True Molars. 



3 + 6 + 8 8 + (8 — 9) + 13 



3 + 6 + 8 8 + (8 — 9) + 13 — 15 



The enamel composing the ridges or lamellae of the teeth is thick and plaited, and the 

 ridges themselves are very thick as compared with those of the group Euelephas, and 

 present a mesial angular expansion. The crown is very wide and belongs to the eury- 

 coronine, just as the preceding E. priscus belongs to the steneo-coronine, or narrow- 

 crowned species of the group Loxodon. The tusks are simply curved, and the skull 

 presents a large number of characters, that it would be out of place to mention here. 

 The remains of Elephas meridionalis have been found only in the horizon of the Forest 

 Bed at Bacton, Mundesley, and Happisburgh, in deposits of Pleistocene age. They occur 

 also in the Norwich Beds and the Red Crag below them. The species is essentially a 

 Pliocene one, that lingered on into the early part of the Pleistocene, where its range in 

 Britain is restricted to the area of Norfolk and Suffolk, which it inhabited also in the 

 Pliocene times. 



1 Osteographie, Article ' Elephas.' 



2 'Quart. Geol. Journ.' (1865), Ixxxii, p. 269, et seq. 



