37: 



Marvels of the Universe 



Pholn biii 



[Professor f'raas. 



ELEPHANTS' TUSK.S. PAST AND PRESENT. 



The upper lusU in this picture is that of an extinct '" African " type of Elephant of about half a million years ago. The 

 lower figure is the largest known tusk of the African Elephant of to-day. It will be seen that the ancient species, which in- 



again as those of the modern Elephant. 



habited Europe and North Africa, had tusks half as long ag 



be roughly called the " African " and the " Asiatic," the African being the less specialized of the 

 two. African Elephants once inhabited (even in the human period) the greater part of Europe and 

 Western Asia, as well as the African Continent. One of their extinct species (antiqiius) developed 

 tusks exceeding anything we know of in modern developments, as is displayed in one of the illustra- 

 tions to this article. An allied type — ganesa — in India (as may be seen by the example in the 

 British ;\Iuseum) probably reached a climax in tusk development which has never been surpassed. 

 But the Asiatic group of True Elephants — typified by the Indian Elephant of to-day — was not far 

 behind in the matter of tusks. It gave us, amongst other extinct forms, the Mammoth, which is 

 little more than an " Indian " Elephant, with somewhat more specialized molar teeth, and with 

 a thick covering of hair over its skin. The Mammoth did not perhaps attain to a greater height 

 at the shoulder than the largest specimens of Indian Elephant known to-day (and the biggest of 

 these — twelve to fourteen feet high at the shoulder — have been recorded from Siam and Sumatra), 

 but it certainly had tusks of a size and length (ten feet) never attained by any existing species of 

 Asiatic Elephant, and leaving even the biggest known Africans behind. These tusks were, as a rule, 

 much more curved than those of the African group of Elephants, and even tended to be spiral. 



The Mammoth, which probably first assumed its specific type in Asia, spread across Bering's 

 Straits (then, no doubt, dry land) to North America, and traversed the New World down to 

 Northern Mexico, developing several sub-specific types of great size, one or two of which, 

 no doubt, co-existed with Man. In fact, in Alaska and North-West North America it is 

 probable that the Mammoth only became extinct a short time before the arrival of the European 

 explorers. Northwards and westwards from Central Asia the Mammoth spread to the shores of 

 the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. It permeated all Europe as far south as the Danube, the Rhine, 

 Northern Italy and Northern Spain. Its range extended westwards as far as Ireland, where, 

 likewise, it may have lingered down to the coming of Neolithic Man with improved weapons. 

 Speaking generally, however, the Mammoth became extinct in Europe not long after the last of 

 the Glacial periods had melted into a more genial climate. Its extinction, however, was 



