ELEPHAS PRIMIGENIUS. 
77 
III.—DENTITION. 
The differentiation of three species of Elephants from remains found in the fossil state 
in Great Britain was not fully admitted until the labours of the late Dr. Falconer, I'.R.S., 
became generally known. Professor Owen, whilst impressed with the remarkable 
differences in the dental characters of remains referable to the Elephasprimigenius, was 
not then (1846) prepared to consider them as indicative of more than one species. 1 2 * The 
precise descriptions and beautiful illustrations of the varieties of molar teeth repre¬ 
sented in the work of that illustrious comparative anatomist could not otherwise than 
arrest the attention of palaeontologists, and of all others the distinguished naturalist 
above mentioned, whose famous discoveries in the Sewalik Hills had made him familiar 
with the dentition of extinct Proboscidea. 
The remarkable essay published by Dr. Falconer on the Species of Mastodon and 
Elephant occurring in the Fossil State in Great Britain was commenced in 1857,* 
but he did not live to complete the latter part, referring to Elephas primigenius, and the 
entire description of Elephas aniiquus is wanting. 8 
Every student of extinct forms of animal life is familiar with Falconer’s classifica¬ 
tion of the Proboscidea, based on the characters of their molar teeth, and of his methods 
of constructing the ridge-formulae characteristic of the various sub-genera and species. 
The terms “isomerous,” “ anisomerous,” and “ hypisomerous,” used by him to distin¬ 
guish the specific characters, although not advanced as mathematically exact in every 
case, being, as the author states, “ liable to vary within certain limits dependent on the 
race, sex, and size of the individual, but it may safely be asserted that the numbers 
are never transposed or reversed, i. e. the younger tooth among the ‘ intermediate 
molars never normally exhibit in the same individual a higher number than the 
older.” 4 * As an example, in the members of the sub-genus Euelephas, and notably the 
Elephas primigenius and Elephas Asiaticus, the ciphers of whose molars, he states, are 
precisely alike in number, he formulates their ridges in upper and lower teeth thus :— 
4“f~8-T 12 :: 12-f-16-j-24, showing that, with the exception of the first and ultimate true 
molars, the others increase by increments of 4, or, as he terms it, by an “ anisomerous 
mode of progression.” But, as will appear in the sequel, it is by no means easy to 
determine what ciphers should even fairly represent the average number of ridges in certain 
1 ‘ British Fossil Mammals,’ p. 243. 
2 ‘ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. of London,’ vols. xiii, xiv, and xxi. 
s In the ‘ Palaeontological Memoirs’ of the late Dr. Falconer the editor has appended certain “note¬ 
book entries to the end of the essay on Elephas primigenius. — ‘ Pal. Mem.,’ vol. ii, p. 172. 
* ‘Pal. Mem.,’ vol. ii, p. 10. 
