ir.lA'A'A'.V MASTODON 



99 



Fossil 



Mammals of 

 South 

 America 



o\w rorrcsixnul witli the l)()iu\s of the other. Tlic horse lo\('i- will jilso be 

 interested in the osteolo^ical collections in the wall cases which show how to 

 t(^Il tlie ji^'c of horses thron<;li the growtli and development of the teeth. 

 H(>vond the Horse exhibit on the left are fossils from South America, 

 the most striking of which is the group of giant ground 

 sloths. There are also good examples of the (ilyptodon, 

 a gigantic relative of the armadillo, of the camel-like Mn- 

 crauchenia, the rhinoceros-like Toxodou, and other strange 

 extinct animals which evolved in South America during the 

 Age of ^Mammals, when it was an island continent, as Australia is to-day. 

 Here too, is the great sabre-tooth tiger, one of the host of northern animals 

 that invaded the southern continent upon its union with the northern 

 world, and swept before them to extinction most of its ancient inhabitants. 

 The principal exhibits on the north side of the hall are the mammoths 

 and mastodons and the series of skulls showing the evolution of the ele- 

 phants. The "Warren Mastodon" is a classic specimen. 

 It w^as found near New^burg, N. Y. in 1846, and is the finest 

 specimen of its kind that has ever been discovered. There 

 is some confusion in the mind of the layman between the mammoth and 

 mastodon; in a general w^ay they are both elephants, the main distinction 



Warren 

 Mastodon 



Tooth of Mastodon and Mammoth 



between them being in the character of the teeth. While modern elephants 

 are confined to portions of Asia and Africa, fossil remains of elephants and 

 mastodons show that at one time or another in the past, they were found 

 o\'er the greater part of the northern hemisphere. 



Skeletons of the Asiatic and African elephants are showTi for compari- 

 son with their extinct relatives and among these, is the 

 once famous Jumbo, v/hose name has been embodied in the 

 English language as a term for anything unusually large. 



[See Handbook No. 4, Animals of the Past.] 



SOUTHEAST WING 



Fossil Mammals of the Tertiary Period 



Return to the East Corridor and continue into the Southeast Wing or 

 Tertiary Hall which contains the Fossil Mammals of the Tertiary Period. 



