li AMKRK A\ MlSKl'M (.VIDE LEAFLETS 



ill a sj)eciin(Mi from \ ictoria, Texas, in tlic Anicrican Museum. This 

 t'li'pliaiit iuhahitrd Mexico and tlic soutliwcstcrii j)ortion of the United 

 States in the early Pleistocene, followed apj)arently hy E. cohiiftbi during 

 the later glacial stages. Jaws and teeth from various localities from Oregon 

 to (Iiiatemala are shown in the wall cases. 



Extinct Old World Elephants. In the older Pleistocene of Europe, 

 especially the Mediterranean coasts, two very large elephants are found — 

 the Southern Elej)hant, E. meridionalia, corresponding to the Columbian 

 elephant in this country, and also nearly related to the Indian, and the 

 Ancient Elephant, E. antiquum, with affinities to the modern African species. 

 These species ranged over large portions of Europe, southern Asia and 

 Africa. In the islands of the Mediterranean have been found remains 

 of pigmy elephants, dwarfed probably as a result of being isolated on 

 the islands after they were se})arated from the mainland. Distinct pigmy 

 forms have been described from Malta, Crete and Cyprus. 



Pliocene and Pleistocene Elephants of India. Evolution of Elephants 

 from Mastodons. Numerous skulls and teeth of fossil elephants have been 

 found in the Siwalik and later formations of India. Besides the more 

 typical species there are several which are intermediate in tooth structure 

 between the elephant and the more ancient mastodons of the Tertiary for- 

 mations, and are placed in the genus Stegodon — 8. latideus, S.clifti, S. iusigniSy 

 with tremendously long tusks little curved, and others. These inter- 

 mediate stages, found only in southern Asia, indicate that it was in this 

 region of the world that the elephants evolved out of the ancestral mastodon 

 groups. 



III. THE AMERICAN MASTODON. 

 Genus Mastodon {=Ma}timut) 



NEXT to the mammoth this is the most familiar and best known of 

 all the fossil proboscideans. Indeed, it is much more common in this 

 country than the manmioth, and it has been stated that there are 

 many more mastodon skeletons in museums of the Cnited States and 

 Canada than there are of modern ele})hants. 



The mastodons of this genus were contemporaries of the mammoth, 

 and like them ranged widely over the northerly ])arts of the world. They 

 e(|ualled or exceeded the largest mammoths in bulk, but were not so tall, 

 the limbs being shorter while the body is broader and more massive. 



Teeth of the Mastodon. The tusks are similar to those of the mam- 

 moth but the skull and jaws are of difi'erent proportions, not nearly so deep 

 and short as those of ele})hants, and the teeth are of (piite different type. 

 Thev are much smaller and shorter crowned, and instead of the successive 



