More Science from an Easy ChairLankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
History
More Science from an Easy Chair
Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
Natural history; Science
The African elephant (as could be seen by comparing the small one
living in Regent's Park with its neighbours) has a sloping forehead
graduating into the trunk or proboscis, instead of the broad, upright
brow of the Indian. He also has very much larger ears, which lie
against the shoulders (except when he is greatly excited) like a short
cape or cloak (see Fig. 7). These great ears differ somewhat in shape
in the elephants of different parts of Africa, and local races can be
distinguished by the longer or shorter angle into which the flap is
drawn out. The grinding teeth of the two elephants differ very
markedly, but one must see these in a museum. The grinders are very
large and long (from behind forwards), coming into place one after the
other. Each grinder occupies, when fully in position, the greater part
of one side of the upper or of the lower jaw. They are crossed from
right to left by ridges of enamel, like a series of mountains and
valleys, which gradually wear down by rubbing against those of the
tooth above or below. The biggest grinder of the Indian elephant has
twenty-four of these transverse ridges, whilst that of the African has
only eleven, which are therefore wider apart (see Fig. 8). An extinct
kind of elephant--the mastodon--had only five such ridges on its
biggest grinders, and four or only three on the others. Other
ancestral elephants had quite ordinary-looking grinders, with only two
or three irregular ridges or broad tubercles. Both the Indian and
African elephant have hairless, rough, very hard, wrinkled skins. But
the new-born young are covered with hair, and some Indian elephants
living in cold, mountainous regions appear to retain a certain amount
of hair through life. The mammoth (which agreed with the Indian
elephant in the number of ridges on its grinders and in other points)
lived in quite cold, sub-Arctic conditions, at a time when glaciers
completely covered Scandinavia and the north of our islands as well as
most of Germany. It retained a complete coat of coarse hair throughout
life. The young of our surviving elephants only exhibit transitorily
the family tendency.
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