New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-08-17
Zig. :. Grinder OF NfastOdou.
INrERMEDTATE PROBOsCIDIANs.

Imust now alude TO some facts Of extraordinary
interest. There were once living in India, but be-
fore the period of the prmeval mammoth. probos-
cidians which were intermediate between the mas
todon and the elephant in the structure of their
grinders. We know a graduation of at least four
connecting links. First, there was the wide
toothed mastodon (pasi0doH aiideHsl, which had the
ridge across the crown corresponding TO the I'M
worn faitened cylinders of the eePhanp more
numerous than in the American mastodon,
less distant, more differentiated, with the
intervals between them deeper. Secondly. there
was the elephantoid mastodon lndsioioH etcPhdR-
foides, which had a molar twelve inches long with
ten transverse ridges; in both respects resembling
the elephant but still unlike the elephant, having
very little oomenfam between the ridges Thirdly
there was the flat-faced elephant eleph1s plant
6opsl. which, though styled an elephant and hay-
ing a supply OF oemealum between the transverse
plates was nevertheless mastOdon-like in
the shallowness of the eefts between
tho plates Fourthly. there was the Hysudrlc
elephant elephGs HysudicHsl, IN which the
divergence from the mastOdon type was
carried still further But lastly IL is carried farth-
est of all in tho living Indian elephant which has
the most complex molars found among existing
animals. Now all these prObOscldans, together
with the primoval mammoth dwelt in successive
periods upon the same continent and IL is o fair
INQUIRY whether they were genealogically related
TO each other. Venturng 10 arrange them in a
linear SERIES we should have succession somewhat
as follows ~ mGstOdon GngustideaS, (2l mGstodoa
latdens (3) mdstodOH elephantodes l4l elpkas miami
trons 5) eIepbds AfrodnHs (6 eiephas Hysudrcus ca
elephas IRdieus.
The mastodon preceded the elephant in both the
Old World and the New; and this is in accordance
81 Il frnr,n
still older mammals. In North America the mastO-
don is known both in the older and tho newer
piocene. In Europe, ID made its first APP
pearance at an epoch generally placed, but
perhaps enormously. little earller-tna,to-
don loagirostris and mdstOdOR tdpirOides being
referred to the mioeene or middle tertiary. As
the mastodon, on the one side, graduates into the
succession Of elephants, the other one of the
oldest mastodOns OF Europe nasiOdOn apiTOldesl re-
yeals afinites with the ancient types of tapir
and dinotherum; and the oldest mastodons of
America were associated with. or Immediately pre-
coded by, other enormous many-hOofed quadrupeds
so far resembling the mastodOn chat authorities are
divided on the question whether they do not really
belong to proboscldians All these facts accord with
the h hypothesis of genealogical descent from the
older types, through the mastOdons aud transitional
mastodons, to the most divergent elephants.
mammoth is, therefore, not alone astonishing
for its magnitude since 1t carries thoughts back
ward directly TO the epoch when Europe aud Anne
Iica became wrapped In a permanent mantle of
snow and to q later epoch, when it was
the companion of the rude ancestors OF our
species and then. by association, backward into
more diltant ages, when the plastic Influence OF
time was slowly evolving the eephantine type
from the mastOdon aud from still older and stranger
FORMS In these prehuman ages, tue fair surface OF
our States and Territories was populated By herds OF
quadrupeds az strange rs they were gigantic. They
grazed and browsed over regions which are now the
sites of waving crops and popuous cities, and prob
ably Of nayIgable lakes. Here nursed the
primeva horses, and rhinocerosos, and tapirs, and
camels, and pigs, and deer. and perhaps mastodons
whose descendants wandered by the northwest pas
sage 10 Asia, Europe and Africa. Here was the real
| Old World spread CONFERENCE.-The and pOpulOus
while Europe was merely an archipelago The relics
of that wonderful extinct population have been
studied by Leidy and Cope and Marsh aud through
their labOrs we are permitted To live as 10 were
million years ago. Still moro real aud present APP
pear the scenes Of those primitive times, when we
stand in the midst Of the restored and Tehabitated
creatures OF tho Occident and tho Orient which
Professor Ward has spread before the eyes OF the
curious aud inquiring In his vast museum at
| Rochester. Aw,
Ann zr0or, Mich, Aug. 10, 1878