MASTODON AND WOOLLY RHLNOCEROS. 219 
extended botPi north and south into temperate regions, and in 
America its remains have been discovered as high as latitude 66° N. 
But the true home of the Mastodon giganteus, in the United 
States, like that of M. augustidens in Europe, lies in a more 
temperate zone, and, as Professor Owen says, we have no evidence 
that any species was specially adapted, like the Mammoth, for 
braving the rigours of an arctic winter. 
Now, we know from trustworthy geological evidence that the 
Mastodon is a much older form of life than the Mammoth. The 
record of the rocks tells us that it first put in an appearance in an 
early Tertiary period known as the Miocene (see Table of Strata, 
Appendix I.), and in the Old World lived on to the end of the 
succeeding Pliocene period. But in America several species, 
especially M. giganteus, survived till late in the Pleistocene period, 
where it was probably seen by primitive men. This is all that is 
known about its geographical range, and its antiquity or range in 
time j some day, perhaps before very long, palaeontologists may be 
able to trace the great proboscideans further back in time, and to 
show from what form of animal they were derived. Strange as it 
may seem, anatomists declare that they show some remote affinity 
with the rodents, or gnawing animals, and, in some respects, even 
with Sirenians, such as the Manatee (see Chapter XVI.). But 
at present the evolution of this remarkable group of animals is an 
unsolved problem. Those strange animals, the Dinocerata, from 
Wyoming, described in chap, x., may perhaps give some indi- 
cation as to the direction in which we must look for the elephant’s 
ancestors. We noticed that their limbs were decidedly elephantine 
(see p. 150), but they had no trunks, and their skulls showed curious 
prominences like horn-cores ; their teeth too are very different. 
The visitor to the Geological Collection at South Kensington 
will also notice a splendid cranium of an elephant, with very long 
tusks, from the famous Sivalik Plills of Northern India ^ (Stand 
^ There is some difficulty in determining the precise geological age of the 
strata in question, on account of the curious mixture of fossil forms of life they 
contain ; but many authorities consider them to be of older Pliocene age. 
