FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. The ancestry of the ele phants, or Proboscidea, is not well known. They are the least specialized of the modern ungulates, for during their known history they have pro gressed only in respect of the development of the trunk or proboscis, the substitution of tusks for the hicisor teeth, and the acquirement of an abnormal molar dentition. In the early Tho•ene time they appeared with their proboscidean char acters quite well developed, and the chief genera, Dinotherium, .:\lastodon, and Elephas, which suc ceed each other in geologic time, present a pro gressive evolutbmal series. In the earlier forms the bony structure of the facial region of the skull is less thickened than it is in later forms, indicating a lesser muscular attachment for a smaller proboscis. The tusks augment in size in the successive genera, and the teeth increase in complexity as to their crowns. The molar teeth of Dinotherinm have only two or three transverse ridges, .,Ilastodon has 2 to 5, Stegodon has 13, and Elephas has 27. This complexity is due to folding of the enamel into transverse ridges, the number of folds advancing in the successive genera. The size of the molars also increases, and in the latest genus, Elephas, they have become so large that only two or three can be in position in the jaw at one time. The brunt of the chewing falls upon the anterior molar, and as this is worn out it is pushed forward out of the front of the jaw, and the space behind is filled by a new molar that rises from a socket at the back of the jaw. Fossil Proboscidea ap pear in the Miocene and Pliocene of North Amer ica and Europe and in the Pliocene of South America, but at the end of the Pleistocene they disappeared from those countries, having emi grated to Asia and Africa, where their descen dants are now living. Consult: Woodward, Out
lines of Vertebrate Paleontology (Cambridge, ISOS ) Bernard. ts de p?l(ontologie (Paris, 1895) ; Nicholson and Lydekker. Manual of Paleontology, von. ii. (Edinburgh and London, ISSO). See IhNortimu•m; TNIAMmorn; AlAs•o pox.
limmonftArn Y. Of the older sources of in formation, the best are the article in Jardine's Naturalists' Library (London, 1833-43) and Andersson's book, The Lion and the Elephant (London, 1873). For the Asiatic elephant, con sult: 'Ferment, The Wild Elephant in Ceylon (London, 1867) ; Hornaday, Two Years in the Jungle ( New Ili It.
Beasts of India (London, 18931, the last-named of which is, on the whole, the best authority on the subject ; also Kipling, Beasts and .Ilan in India (London. 1891) ; Mary, Les tWphants en ,s4iam et en Cambodge (Paris, MO) ; Pollak, slaw( in 1:ritish Burma (London, 1879). and the writ ings of sportsmen - travelers, especially D' Ewes, Forsyth, Shakespeare, 11a Id wi :Id Bar•as. For the Afrienn elephant, consult : Neu mann. Elephant Hunting in East Equatorial ilea (London, 1898) ; Gordon-Cumming, Fire Years of a Hunter's Life in .1 [rice (New York, 1850) ; Barris, (iame and 11 ild Animals of Southern Africa ( London, 1s40) ; Baker, Wih/ Beasts and Their Ways (London. 1890). and other books by the same writer; Holub, ,Berm _Years in 8onth Africa, translat 1 I _et. by (London, 158I) ; Scions, A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa (London, 1890), and other books by Selous; Armandi, Histoirc mititairc des (Paris, 1843) ; Der Elephant in Krieg and Fri«lcu, and seine. •erwendu»a in unsern ofrikanischen liuloni(n (Hamburg. I8571.