528 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
America, being geologically more ancient than the old world, it is not sur¬ 
prising that its fossils represent earlier forms. 
The Alaskan Mammoth (. Elephas columbi ) has furnished at least specimens 
of its teeth, and to the trained naturalist a knowledge of dentition is quite as 
much as the scale of a fish is said 
to have been to Agassiz, for he feels 
that with a tooth he can safely pro¬ 
ceed to construct the entire animal. 
The Alaskan mammoth must, it is 
concluded, have borne a close resem¬ 
blance to the Indian elephant of 
to-day. 
The Mastodon, or Mammal¬ 
toothed Elephant (. Mastodon ameri- 
canus ), seems to mark the time when 
the elephants and the classes imme¬ 
diately succeeding had not yet be¬ 
come differentiated. It was called, 
in Indian tradition, “ The Father of 
MAMMOTH DISCOVERED IN SIBERIA. all Oxen,” or “ The Original Ox,”" 
and from the fossil remains having- 
been discovered first in Ohio, it is sometimes spoken of as “The Ohio 
Beast.” A Nebraska Mastodon ( Mastodon mirificus ), a Chilian Mastodon 
(.Mastodon humboldtii ), the Lower Tusked Mastodon (. Mastodon productus ) 
have still further contributed to enrich our American museums. Europe and. 
Asia have furnished examples of the mas¬ 
todon^ and the European Mastodon may 
well have its technical name supplied as 
likely at any moment to confront the reader 
of works on Natural History; it is Mastodon 
angustidens. 
The Asiatic Mastodon (. Dinotherium ) 
was first found in India, but remains have 
since been discovered in Germany; it is 
quite distinct as a species. Its teeth in 
many ways suggest a pre-historic form of 
the tapir, and its remarkable tusks run 
towards the ground, as though designed for 
shovelling. From its dentition it is con¬ 
cluded that it lived upon soft food, of 
which there must have been an abundance 
while yet the waters were contesting the 
sovereignty of the earth. 
The Siberian Mammoth 
genius) had brown hair ne; 
length, and shaggy mane, and would appear to have wandered over Great 
Britain, France, Central and Northern Europe, Siberia, Alaska and even Oregon. 
The skeleton preserved in the Museum of St. Petersburg has a body sixteen 
feet in length and nine and a half feet high, and the weight of the entire ani¬ 
mal is estimated at twenty thousand pounds. 
(.Elephas primi- 
irly a foot in 
SKUEE OF DINOTHERIUM. 
