6 
DESCRIPTIONS OF INFERIOR MAXILLARY BONES 
The ramus of the jaw is slightly flattened on its external aspect, 
and somewhat excavated on its internal one. The anterior maxillary 
foramina are two (Plate XXIII., fig. 1, p , q); there are several smaller 
foramina near the chin for the passage of the blood vessels and nerves. 
The chin terminates in a remarkable expansion, the edges of which 
are exceedingly rough. (Plate XXIII. s.) There are no alveoli for 
tusks, nor any trace of there ever having been any. 
This jaw contained but one tooth in each side. The sockets for the 
molars anterior to these are completely filled up. The tooth which re¬ 
mains (the last molar) was somewhat injured by the accident to which 
we have already referred, but it appears to have had ten points and a 
heel. The direction of this tooth in the jaw is outward anteriorly, 
as is seen from fig. 2. 
The foramen for the inferior maxillary nerve and blood vessels is 
just below the condyle internally (fig. 2, y ), and is one inch and a quar¬ 
ter in diameter. 
On the upper surface of the ramus, just at the base of the coronoid 
process, is the commencement of a small groove, which immediately 
divides and diverges. It is evidently caused by a blood vessel; and 
we mention it because a similar groove occurs in the fragment repre¬ 
sented in Plate XXII. It is not to be found in any other specimen in 
the collection.* 
The lower jaw represented in Plate XXIV. differs considerably in its 
form from the jaws of the M. giganteum we have described. Its base 
is more curved antero-posteriorly—the external aspect of its ramus is 
more flattened, and that portion of the jaw covered by the masseter 
muscle less so. The groove for the tongue is deeper and narrower; 
and the chin appears pointed, but the specimen being partly w T orn it 
is impossible to determine the exact form of this part. 
* There is in. the Cabinet of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, a fragment of 
an inferior maxillary bone, which agrees in all its characters with that just described, except 
that the direction of its condyle is inwards and backwards, and that its posterior molar has but 
four denticules. This bone was found in New Jersey, and is figured in Mitchell’s edition of 
Cuviers Theory of the earth; and copied into Cuvier’s Ossemens Fossiles; Grand Masto- 
donte, Plate III. fig. 5. 
