150 
BRITISH POSSIL ELEPHANTS. 
5. PELVIC GIRDLE. 
The relative dimensions of the pelvic borders do not seem to offer any very reliable 
data, either in the recent or the extinct species. The following details, however, are 
worth recording. 
1. As indicated by Cuvier, Busk, and myself, 1 the proportion between the length 
and breadth of the foramen ovale is greater in the Mammoth than in either of the recent 
Elephants. This is well seen in various Arctic examples of the former and specimens of 
the latter. Moreover, the smaller end of the oval is superior in the Asiatic, Mammoth, 
and Meridional, and the channel for the nerve more pronounced, indeed, in some it is 
almost a foramen; whilst the broader end of the oval is superior, and the groove small, 
in the African. I have not seen a pelvis of the Ancient Elephant. 
2. Hie acetabulum in eight examples of the Mammoth from the Arctic region shows 
the vertical to be the largest measurement, whereas in the recent species, and also one of 
E. meridionalis, it is shorter than the transverse. 
3. As far as detached ossa innominata of the Mammoth are concerned, I am unable to 
show any marked distinctions of the antero-posterior to the lateral diameters as compared 
with the two recent species, and leastwise in the huge pelvis in the Gunn Collection 
referred to by Palconer, 2 which I compared carefully with the same bone in recent 
species. 
4. I he cotyloid notch in the Asiatic Elephant and the Mammoth opens on a flat 
surface, which is absent in the African to the extent that the notch opens directly on the 
upper and outer border of the foramen ovale; moreover, it is wider generally in the 
Mammoth and Asiatic than in the acetabulum of the African. 
5. I find that the obturator border of the ischium is narrower and the internal spine 
of the latter more pronounced in the Mammoth and Asiatic than in the African; more¬ 
over, as far as the somewhat injured parts of the huge pelves from the East Coast are 
concerned, they seem to follow the two former in their characters. 
The following data may be cited in connection with the pelvis of the Mammoth. In 
the Ivellet and Beechy Collections there are several portions of the pelvic basin from 
Eschscholtz Bay and other Arctic regions, presenting the following : 
Specimen 1 shows the same contour of the foramen ovale as in the Asiatic. The 
acetabulum is 6‘5 X 6 3 inches in breadth. The width of the neck of the ilium is 
8 inches. 
The gaping cotyloid notch opens on a flattened space. 
1 ‘ Ossem. Fossil.,’ vol. ii, 221, pi. xvi, figs. 1 and 2. Busk, ‘Trans. Zool. Soc. London,’ vol. ix, 
p. 49. Adams, p. 61, antea. 
2 ‘Pal. Mem.,’ vol. ii, p. 142, figs. 1 aud'2. 
