At the entrance of the Geological Gallery in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, the reader will see a magnificent skeleton of an American Mastodon, of which more presently. On this specimen our artist has based his restoration, [Plate XXI.] A large part of the great gallery referred to is devoted to the fossil remains of proboscideans; that is, creatures provided with a long proboscis, or trunk, such as elephants and Mastodons. This collection, from widely different quarters, is the largest and most complete in the world. By comparing the specimens of teeth in the cases, and looking at the fine specimens of skulls, and the numerous bones and tusks in the side cases, the reader will carry away a better idea than we can convey by description. [Fig. 54] shows the skeleton of Mastodon arvernensis with two very long tusks. Mastodon augustidens had four tusks, two in each jaw, but one of those in the lower jaw sometimes dropped out as the animal grew older.
THE MASTODON OF OHIO, M. AMERICANUS.
No genus of quadrupeds has been more extensively diffused over the globe than the Mastodon. From the tropics it has extended both north and south into temperate regions, and in America its remains have been discovered as high as latitude 66° N. But the true home of the Mastodon giganteus, in the United States, like that of M. augustidens in Europe, lies in a more temperate zone, and, as Professor Owen says, we have no evidence that any species was specially adapted, like the Mammoth, for braving the rigours of an arctic winter.
Now, we know from trustworthy geological evidence that the Mastodon is a much older form of life than the Mammoth. The record of the rocks tells us that it first put in an appearance in an early Tertiary period known as the Miocene (see [Table of Strata, Appendix I].), and in the Old World lived on to the end of the succeeding Pliocene period. But in America several species, especially M. giganteus, survived till late in the Pleistocene period, where it was probably seen by primitive men. This is all that is known about its geographical range, and its antiquity or range in time; some day, perhaps before very long, palæontologists may be able to trace the great proboscideans further back in time, and to show from what form of animal they were derived. Strange as it may seem, anatomists declare that they show some remote affinity with the rodents, or gnawing animals, and, in some respects, even with Sirenians, such as the Manatee (See [Chapter XVI.]). But at present the evolution of this remarkable group of animals is an unsolved problem. Those strange animals, the Dinocerata, from Wyoming, described in [Chapter X.], may perhaps give some indication as to the direction in which we must look for the elephant’s ancestors. We noticed that their limbs were decidedly elephantine (see [p. 150]), but they had no trunks, and their skulls showed curious prominences like horn-cores; their teeth too are very different.
The visitor to the Geological Collection at South Kensington will also notice a splendid cranium of an elephant, with very long tusks, from the famous Sivalik Hills of Northern India[72] (Stand D on plan). It belonged to Elephas ganesa, one of the largest of all the fossil elephants known. The total length of the cranium and tusks is fourteen feet, and the tusks alone measure ten feet six inches in length! This remarkable specimen was presented by Sir William Erskine Baker, K.C.B.
[72] There is some difficulty in determining the precise geological age of the strata in question, on account of the curious mixture of fossil forms of life they contain; but many authorities consider them to be of older Pliocene age.
But to return to our Mastodon. It was early in the eighteenth century that the teeth and bones of the Mastodon were first described,[73] and it is curious to observe how differently scientific discoveries were regarded in those days; for this society of learned men published in these Transactions a letter from Dr. Mather to Dr. Woodward, in which the former gives an account of a large work in manuscript, but does not name the author. This book, which appears to have been a commentary on the Bible, Dr. Mather recommends “to the patronage of some generous Mœcenas to promote the publication of it,” and transcribes, as a specimen, a passage announcing the discovery at Albany, now the capital of New York State, in the year 1705, of enormous bones and teeth. These relics he considered to belong to a former race of giants, and appeals to them in confirmation of Genesis vi. 4 (“The Nephilim (giants) were in the earth in those days”).