The most ancient of the true Elephants (genus _Elephas_) is _E. meridionalis_. It is of the African type, _i.e._ the plates of the molar teeth are not abundant, and are not so many as in the existing _E. africanus_. It seems to have been one of the largest of Elephants, standing 4 metres high. Its remains are abundant in Europe, and are known also from England. Like this species _E. antiquus_ is also of the African type. It was contemporary with man. Certain dwarf or "pony" races found in caves in Malta, and called _Elephas melitensis_ or _E. falconeri_, are believed to belong to this species. Mr. Leith Adams, who described these[144] remains, placed them in two dwarf species called by the names used above, and found associated with them a larger form, which he referred to _E. antiquus_. The existence of these animals in Malta seems to argue at least its former larger dimensions, and the presence of more abundant fresh water. The remarkable swimming capabilities of the Elephant do not necessarily imply either a former absence of land connexion or, on the other hand, its existence. Nor as a third possibility can it be suggested that the dwarf size argues an island of limited dimensions, when we bear in mind the huge tortoises of the Galapagos and some other islands. It is important to notice that Elephants of the African type (_Loxodon_) were not formerly absent from India. _E. planifrons_ was one of these. The genus _Stegodon_ is so called from the fact that the molar teeth, seen in longitudinal section, present a series of roof-shaped folds, the interstices between which are not, or are, imperfectly filled up with the cement which in _Elephas_ reduces the surface of the teeth to a level plane. This genus is exclusively Asiatic, and is Miocene to Pleistocene in time range. The number of ridges on the molars is small, not more than two. The incisors (tusks) have no enamel; the skeleton generally is like that of _Elephas_, between which and _Mastodon_ the present genus is intermediate. Among the four or five species is _S. ganesa_ (called after the Indian Elephant-headed divinity), with tusks 10 feet long, to be seen at the British Museum of Natural History. {230} The last genus of the family Elephantidae is _Mastodon_, so called from the structure of the molar teeth. These are provided with but few transverse ridges, not more than five, so that their structure is intermediate between those of _Dinotherium_ and those of _Stegodon_. Between the ridges are sometimes isolated, boss-like protuberances (whence the name of _Mastodon_), produced by a subdivision of the ridges. There is either but little or no cement between the ridges. This genus differs from nearly all other Elephantidae by the possession of milk molars, which occasionally persist throughout life, the permanent dentition in those cases being a mixture of milk and permanent teeth, as has been (erroneously) stated of the Hedgehog.[145]