The Mammoth, the skeleton of which is represented in Fig. 180, surpassed
the largest existing Elephants of the tropics in size, for it was from
sixteen to eighteen feet in height. The teeth, and the size of the
monstrous tusks, much curved, and with a spiral turn outwards, and which
were from ten to fifteen feet in length, serve to distinguish the
Mammoth from the two Elephants living at the present day, the African
and the Indian. The form of its teeth permits of its being distinguished
from its ally, the Mastodon; for while the teeth of the latter have
rough mammillations on their surface, those of the Mammoth, like those
of the living Indian Elephant, have a broad united surface, with regular
furrowed lines of large curvature. The teeth of the Mammoth are four in
number, like the Elephants, two in each jaw when the animal is adult,
its head is elongated, its forehead concave, its jaws curved and
truncated in front. It has been an easy task, as we shall see, to
recognise the general form and structure of the Mammoth, even to its
skin. We know beyond a doubt that it was thickly covered with long
shaggy hair, and that a copious mane floated upon its neck and along its
back; its trunk resembled that of the Indian Elephant; its body was
heavy, with a tail naked to the end, which was covered with thick tufty
hair, and its legs were comparatively shorter than those of the latter
animal, many of the habits of which it nevertheless possessed.
Blumenbach gave it the specific name of _Elephas primigenius_.
[Illustration: Fig. 180.--Skeleton of the Mammoth, Elephas primigenius.]
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