ELEPHAS ANTIQUUS—TRUE MOLARS. 
21 
B. TRUE MOLARS. 
First True Molar. 
The first true molar in Elephants is perhaps more subject to variation than any 
other member of the dental series, and therefore there is a great likelihood of confound¬ 
ing it with the last of the milk series, seeing that their ridge formulae are ordinarily the 
same. 
A very distinctive instance of this tooth is shown, natural size , PI. Ill, fig- 2. It is 
No. 37,241 of the National Collection, and was dredged off Happisborough. Here 
there are a? 10 a? in 7 inches, the average thickness per ridge being about 0-5 inch ; it 
maintains the long laminae with the narrow crown of 11. aniiquus as compared with that 
of the Mammoth. 
This important distinction is always best seen in true molars. The central expansion 
and angulation are not always very pronounced in maxillary teeth unless the crowns are 
more than half debited ; whilst in mandibular specimens, from their ridges being more 
apart, the condition becomes developed soon after the digitations are ground down and the 
crown has become about one third worn. The anterior fang usually supports the first 
three ridges, but now and then only the anterior talon. The highest ridge in Pig. 2 is 
the tenth, which is six inches in height, whilst the maximum breadth of the crown is in 
front, where in the above it is 2’2 inches. Of course a good deal will depend on the 
state of attrition as to where the broadest part of the crown will be found, and this is at 
once obvious when the configuration of upper and lower molars of the various stages of 
growth are duly considered. 
Another upper tooth, also from Happisborough, but in an imperfect state, is repre¬ 
sented by the specimen 33,369, B. M., the crown constituents of which are precisely ol 
the same character as in the preceding. 
A mandibular example is well shown in the jaw, No. 18,789, B. M., ‘1. A. S., 
pi. xiiiA, figs. 5 and 5 a. The specimen was presented by the Earl of Aylesford (not 
Aylesbury, as noted by Ealconer 1 ). The left tooth is entire, and holds os 11 x in 6-7 
inches; the crown is much arcuated, with disks well shown. Posteriorly there are clear 
evidences of the socket of a much larger molar, which could not have been other than a 
second true molar. 
Either a large last milk or an unusually small first true molar is admirably shown in 
a mandible from the gravels of Wytham, in the Oxford University Museum. Ihe 
rami contain two fragments of molars with the two succeeding teeth in place ; the right 
is entire, and holds xWx in 6'2 inches, thus displaying small proportions for the first 
1 ‘ Pal. Mem.,’ vol. i, p. 440, fig. 5, and vol. ii, p. 182. 
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