MONTHLY NOTICE. 



97 



MONTHLlf NOTICE. 



ist. April, 1842. 



The long expected report of Professor Owen on the re- 

 mains of the so-called " Leviathan 3Iissoiirii'' of which we 

 gave a brief account in our February notice, has at length 

 been submitted to the public, through the medium of the 

 Geological Society of London, and although nullifying its 

 distinction as a new species, it has proved the identity of the 

 several portions of which it is composed. In the memoir to 

 which we refer, a very exact examination is recorded of the 

 dentition, and position of the tusks in this animal, and 

 Professor Owen, having by this means recognised its identity 

 with either the Teiracaulodon or the Mastodon giganteum, 

 proceeds to a minute dissertation on the peculiar characters 

 of each. He states that Dr. Godman founded the former 

 genus upon a fossil lower jaw, which contained molar teeth, 

 agreeing with those of the Mastodon ; but which possessed 

 two tusks projecting from the symphysial extremity. Now 

 from the examination of the extensive series in Mr. Koch's 

 collection, as well as of those specimens which are preserved 

 in other quarters, it seems clear, " that an anim al of the 

 same size and molar dentition as the Mastodon, was cha- 

 racterized in the adult state, by a single tusk or incisor pro- 

 jecting from the symphysial extremity of the right ramus of 

 the lower-jaw, and that the assumed peculiarity of the Tetra- 

 caulodon, namely the two inferior tusks, one in each ramus^ 

 is manifested only by immature animals,^' and hence the 

 subversion of the latter genus. We will not offer any length- 

 ened remarks, as to the reasoning by which Professor Owen 

 was enabled to prove his opinion, but will merely add that 

 Professor Owen has referred all the remains of Proboscideal 

 Pachyderms in Mr. Koch's collection, v/ith the exception of a 



VpL. I. NO. IV. II 



