U'.W,7,7-:\ Y1AST0D0!\ 



99 



Fossil 



Mammals of 

 South 

 America 



out' correspond with the bones of the other. The hor.se lover will also be 



interested in the osteologies! collections in the wall cases which show how to 



tell the age of horses through the growth and development of the teeth. 



Beyond the Horse e\hil>it on the left are fossils Prom South America, 



the most, striking of which is the group of giant ground 



sloths. There are also good examples of the Glyptodon, 

 a gigantic relative of the armadillo, of the eamel-like Ma- 

 crauchenia, the rhinoceros-like Toxodon, 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 w r ith 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 was found near Newburg, 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 way 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 

 over the greater part of the northern hemisphere. 



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

 son with their extinct relatives and among these, is the 

 once famous Jumbo, whose 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. 



