714 
AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 
the persistence of ancient types occurred among the genera 
in past geologic ages. Thus one of the primitive genera, 
Mastodon , lingered until the last or Pleistocene age in the 
northern hemisphere, in much of which territory it lived 
with and supplanted the more highly specialized genus 
Elephas. The African elephant, which is to-day the giant 
among the land mammals, was exceeded in height by some 
of the fossil species, notably by Elephas imperator , from the 
Pliocene of North America, which attained a height of 13 
feet or over at the withers. Another form of gigantic size 
was the Pleistocene species, Elephas meridionalis , of southern 
Europe, which attained a height of considerably more than 
12 feet and was, like imperator , one of the allies of the Indian 
elephant. A gigantic fossil species, antiquus , of the Pliocene 
of southern Europe, related to the African elephant and 
likewise a member of the genus Loxodonta , was scarcely less 
in height than imperator. The African elephant, which at¬ 
tains a height of 11 feet or slightly more at the withers, 
although exceeded in height by these fossil species, can 
scarcely be said to be a smaller animal in bulk. No fossil 
elephant is known which had a larger skull. The gigantic 
species, though taller, were relatively small-skulled forms. 
The tusks of many of the extinct species were very long and 
exceeded the average African tusks greatly in this dimension. 
The great length in the extinct species was often due to 
their having become of no functional use, so that, in the 
absence of wear, their points grew to immense length, curving 
either upward or inward in a large circle and overlapping 
one another, as in the case of some mammoths. Record 
tusks of the African elephant approach very closely in thick¬ 
ness or diameter to the largest of those of the gigantic fossil 
species. The disuse to which the tusks were subjected in the 
mammoths would account for the smaller size of the skull, 
there being less need for the development of bony crests for 
muscular attachment for wielding the tusks than in the 
living African species in which the tusks are subject to 
much use and wear. At the time these giant species were 
flourishing there were also pygmy species, some five feet in 
height, living actually with their larger kin on some of the 
islands in the Mediterranean, notably Malta and Crete. 
Such small species were related to the African elephant and 
