The evolution of the elephant : as illustrated in the Yale collections / by Richard S. Lull.

  • R. S. Lull
Date:
[1908]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The evolution of the elephant : as illustrated in the Yale collections / by Richard S. Lull. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    TfROM THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, VOL. XXV, MARCH, 1908.] The Evolution of By RICHARD Part I. Part II. Part III. General Evolutionary Migrations of the Proboscidea. Part I. The modern word elephant, which may be used compre- hensively to include all of the proboscidians, comes from the Greek eXe'^a? (eXe^ai'T), a word first used in the literature by Herodotus, the father of history. The origin of the word is somewhat a matter of doubt, certain authorities deriving it from the Hebrew eleph, an ox; others from the Hebrew ibdh, Sanskrit ibhas, an elephant, comparing this with the Latin ebur, meaning ivory. Another Sanskrit word is liastln, ele- phant, from hasta, a hand or trunk. Thus the ancients emphasized the three characteristics of the proboscidians, size, the tusks, and the trunk, which are the most striking features of the most remarkable of beasts. The proboscidians may be defined as large, trunk-bearing mammals, with pillar-like limbs, short neck and huge head, often with protruding ivory tusks, the modified upper and, in earlier, extinct types, the lower incisor teeth. The probo- scidians constitute a sub-order of the great group of ungulates or hoofed mammals, yet have their nearest living allies in creatures strangely remote in size, form and environment from the lordly elephant, for the paleontologist, in his ardent search for family trees other than his own, often discloses some seemingly paradoxical relationships which completely upset the older ideas of classification. Explorations have recently brought to light evidence to show that the sea-living Sirenia, whose American representative is the Florida manatee, can claim close relationship with the elephants, though nothing