712 
AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 
The ancient African evidence rests chiefly upon the Fayum 
beds, but elephant remains of Miocene age, representing an 
aberrant type, Dinotherium , have also been found near 
Lakes Victoria Nyanza and Rudolf, in equatorial Africa. 
A mastodon of Pleistocene age is also recorded from South 
Africa. There exists to-day only a small remnant of the 
family, representing but two genera, Elephas , confined to 
southern Asia, and Loxodonta , confined to Ethiopian Africa. 
African Elephant 
Loxodonta 
Loxodonta F. Cuvier, 1827, Zool. Journ., vol. Ill, p. 140; type Elephas 
africanus Blumenbach. 
Although Cuvier established the genus Loxodonta for the 
African elephants more than eighty years ago, the African 
has been associated by naturalists generally with the In¬ 
dian elephant in the genus Elephas . Cuvier called attention 
to the much wider or lozenge shape and the lesser number 
of the enamel plates in the molar teeth in the African ele¬ 
phant in comparison with the Indian, and upon such distinc¬ 
tion the genus was founded. Owing, however, to there 
being but two living forms, no attempt has been made to 
recognize the generic distinction between the two except by 
some paleontologists, who have many species to consider 
and find such a generic division of importance in the classi¬ 
fication. Besides the differences in the molar teeth there 
are many other distinctions in structure which are of ge¬ 
neric value. The skull in the African elephant is evenly 
rounded on the crown, being perfectly dome-shaped and 
without the median depression which in the Indian separates 
the crown into two rounded knobs or bosses. An important 
external distinction between the two elephants is the enor¬ 
mous size of the ear in the African elephant, in which it cov¬ 
ers the entire neck and withers and reaches as low as the 
breast, the height often equalling half the standing height 
of the animal. The African also has a more sloping dorsal 
profile, the body sloping downward from the crown of the 
