14 
DESCRIPTIONS OF INFERIOR MAXILLARY BONES 
that the animal possessed an intermediate tooth between the second 
tooth with three denticules (Plate XXVI. d ), and that with four dent.i- 
cules (Plate XXIX./), for we cannot believe the former tooth cor¬ 
responds with that represented in Plate XXVII. e. Should we be 
correct in our views, this animal possessed three teeth, with three den¬ 
ticules in each side of each jaw, making the whole number of teeth 
twenty-four; but to render this certain would require specimens of 
intermediate ages to those hitherto described. 
Cuvier attributes to the gigantic Mastodon but sixteen teeth, eight 
in each jaw; of these teeth he saw the three posterior only of each side ; 
but he indicates the fourth from an alveole in the young specimen pre¬ 
sented to the French Museum by Mr Jefferson, and he asks, whether 
this tooth had two or three denticules. In the young specimen belong¬ 
ing to the cabinet of our Society, there are two teeth with three denticules 
each; and anteriorly an alveole with three depressions, Plate XX. fig. 2, 
m,w,o. Was there in this alveole a tooth with three denticules, or were 
there two teeth with two denticules each, of which the anterior tooth 
having sometime previously fallen out the alveole for its anterior root 
has been obliterated? We are inclined to believe that the latter was 
the fact. It may also be asked whether the tooth represented in Plate 
XX. fig. 1 , d, corresponds with that in Plate XXL e, in Plate XXIV. e. 
and in Plate XXV. c? We think not. Cuvier, it is true, considers 
the tooth with three denticules, in the adult jaw represented in Plate 
III. fig. 1, Grande Mastodonte ,* to correspond with the posterior tooth 
with three denticules in the young jaw represented in the same plate, 
fig. 3 and 4 ; but the difference in the size of these two teeth, and even 
in their shape, the former being proportionably broader, is very striking. 
In all the jaws we have examined, this character is constant; thus, 
compare the tooth represented in Plate XX. d , with that in Plate XXI. e , 
Plate XXIV. e, and Plate XXV. e. It would therefore seem that 
the Mastodon has three teeth with three denticules; but to render 
this certain will require further specimens. 
The succession of the teeth in the Mastodon , takes place as follows: 
-—In all the jaws the anterior teeth will be observed to be most worn. 
As the anterior teeth are worn down others are formed posterior; the 
anterior teeth successively fall out, their alveoles are obliterated, and 
* Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles, Tom. I. Paris, 1831, 
