Animals of the PastLucas, Frederic A. (Frederic Augustus)
Science
Animals of the Past
Lucas, Frederic A. (Frederic Augustus)
Paleontology
_The tusk obtained by Mr. Beach and mentioned in the text still holds
the record for mammoth tusks. The greatest development of tusks
occurred in Elephas ganesa, a species found in Pliocene deposits of the
Siwalik Hills, India. This species appears not to have exceeded the
existing elephant in bulk, but the tusks are twelve feet nine inches
long, and two feet two inches in circumference. How the animal ever
carried them is a mystery, both on account of their size and their
enormous leverage. As for teeth, an upper grinder of Elephas columbi in
the United States National Museum is ten and one-half inches high, nine
inches wide, the grinding face being eight by five inches. This tooth,
which is unusually perfect, retaining the outer covering of cement, came
from Afton, Indian Territory, and weighs a little over fifteen pounds.
The lower tooth, shown in Fig. 38, is twelve inches long, and the
grinding face is nine by three and one-half inches; this is also from
Elephas columbi. Grinders of the Northern Mammoth are smaller, and the
plates of enamel thinner, and closer to one another. Mr. F. E. Andrews,
of Gunsight, Texas, reports having found a femur, or thigh-bone five
feet four inches long, and a humerus measuring four feet three inches,
these being the largest bones on record indicating an animal fourteen
feet high._
_There is a vast amount of literature relating to the mammoth, some of
it very untrustworthy. A list of all discoveries of specimens in the
flesh is given by Nordenskiold in "The Voyage of the Vega" and "The
Mammoth and the Flood" by Sir Henry Howorth, is a mine of information.
Mr. Townsend's "Alaska Live-Mammoth Story" may be found in "Forest and
Stream" for August 14, 1897._
[Illustration: Fig. 37.--The Mammoth as Engraved by a Primitive Artist
on a Piece of Mammoth Tusk.]
XI
THE MASTODON
"_... who shall place
A limit to the giant's unchained strength?_"
The name mastodon is given to a number of species of fossil elephants
differing from the true elephants, of which the mammoth is an example,
in the structure of the teeth. In the mastodons the crown, or grinding
face of the tooth, is formed by more or less regular /\-shaped cross
ridges, covered with enamel, while in the elephants the enamel takes the
form of narrow, pocket-shaped plates, set upright in the body of the
tooth. Moreover, in the mastodons the roots of the teeth are long
prongs, while in the elephants the roots are small and irregular. A
glance at the cuts will show these distinctions better than they can be
explained by words. Back in the past, however, we meet, as we should if
there is any truth in the theory of evolution, with elephants having an
intermediate pattern of teeth.
[Illustration: Fig. 38.--Tooth of Mastodon and of Mammoth.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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