ELEPHAS ANTIQUUS—CONCLUSION. 
67 
either a thick-plated or a narrow crown, which again as gradually assumes the character of 
the open disk of the African Elephant. I again refer to the probability that these different 
varieties of crown may be sexual or individual characters, inasmuch as they have been 
found in the same deposits and often associated. At the same time the possibility of 
local varieties is quite admissible, and the divergence of the broad crown into the 
tooth of the Elephas primigenius , on the one hand, and the thick rhomb-like disk 
into that of the molar of E. Africanus, is also a possible contingency, neither of which, 
however, can be safely accepted as evidences of the genesis of either species, at all events, 
without a more extended comparison with the other extinct forms. 
As to Elephas Namadicus, it seems to me, as far as its dentition extends, to 
be indistinguishable from Elephas antiquus; indeed, Dr. Ealconer appears to have 
been constantly impressed with the relationship, and had he lived to carry out the 
brilliant researches with which his name is so intimately associated, it appears to me 
that, with all his bias in favour of the immutability of species, the conclusion I have 
come to must at length have been forced upon him. 
The last true molar of the largest Maltese form is a miniature of the same tooth in 
the Elephas antiquus, with a ridge formula only equal to the second true molar of the 
latter; so that whilst the two go hand in hand in respect to ridge formula and crown 
pattern from the first milk to the first true molar, they seemingly differ in regard to 
the two remaining members of the series. These differences, however, may not be 
constant, although I found them general in a number of specimens of the ultimate 
molar of Elephas Mnaidriensis. No doubt, however, future researches in Southern 
Europe and eastwards will develop many seemingly discordant points in connection with 
Elephas antiquus and allied forms. 
The uncertainty in regard to the bones ascribed to Elephas antiquus render the fore¬ 
going observations on its osteology of little value. As regards the relative dimensions of 
maxillae and mandibles, it would seem that ordinarily they do not differ materially, 
especially in young and adolescent individuals, from those found with similar stages of 
growth in the Asiatic and African Elephants; and, whilst aged individuals attained to 
colossal proportions, the usual adult may have not averaged over 11 feet in height, or, 
perhaps, a little over the larger individuals of the African Elephants, which rarely exceeds 
12 feet at the shoulder. The mandible, being the only available portion of the skull of 
Elephas antiquus in any way entire, presents the general characters of the African, as far 
as the contour of the horizontal and ascending rami are concerned, whilst the diasteme is 
more erect and the chin somewhat rounded, but not to the same extent observed in the 
Mammoth, which again bears a close resemblance in its mandible to the Asiatic Elephant, 
as it does generally in the other bones of the skeleton. 
The general resemblances between the mandibles of Elephas antiquus, E. Namadicus, 
and E. Mnaidriensis are pronounced, whilst E. meridionalis has more in common with 
E. Africanus. 
