Palaeontological Memoirs and Notes of the Late Hugh Falconer; with a Biographical Sketch of the Author Compiled and Edited by Charles Murchison

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1868 edition. Excerpt: ... terminates upwards in a deep concave notch of the vertex. In E. meridionalis, and also in a less degree in E. primigenius, it is overarched by a produced lamina of the vertex. I am unable to give any details as to the extent of the sphenoid alse in the Italian form. 7. Basal aspect.--One of the distinctive characters of the Mammoth, upon which Cuvier laid much stress, is the parallelism of the molars in the upper jaw. In E. meridionalis, young and old, they invariably converge, more or less, in front. In young specimens this convergence is very pronounced; in the worn-out molars of very old crania it is less obvious. It is distinctively shown in the palate-specimen, fig. 1 of Plate VI. of Cortesi's cranium, from Monte Pulgnasco. The materials for comparative description of the crania of the Elephants have been largely increased since the time of Cuvier, and chiefly with the skulls of Indian fossil species. The points here indicated clearly show that the cranium of E. meridionalis differs more from that of the Mammoth than does the latter from the existing Indian Elephant. The Italian form, in this respect, resembles most the cranium of E. Hysudricus from the Sewalik hills, and is intermediate between it and that of the African Elephant, although widely different from both. i. Lower Jaw.--Much importance was attached by Cuvier to the form of the mandible as distinctive of the Mammoth; and to that of E. meridionalis by Nesti. I have already adverted to the error committed by the latter (pp. 42, 81, and 105) in taking the lower jaw of M. Arvernensis as the type of his E. meridionalis. He adhered to this opinion to the last, notwithstanding the correction by Cuvier. The demonstration is so manifest that it would be unnecessary to discuss...