In the later
Eocene a larger and more advanced animal, the Palaeomastodon,
makes its appearance. Its tusks are larger (five or six inches
long), its molars more elephantine, the air-cells at the back of
the head more developed. It would look like a small elephant,
except that it had a long snout, instead of a flexible trunk, and
a projecting lower jaw on which the snout rested.
*See this short account, "Guide to the Elephants in the British
Museum," 1908.
Up to the beginning of the Miocene, Africa was, as we saw, cut
off from Europe and Asia by the sea which stretched from Spain to
India. Then the land rose, and the elephant passed by the new
tracts into the north. Its next representative, Tetrabelodon, is
found in Asia and Europe, as well as North Africa. The frame is
as large as that of a medium-sized elephant, and the increase of
the air-cells at the back of the skull shows that an increased
weight has to be sustained by the muscles of the neck. The
nostrils are shifted further back. The tusks are from twenty to
thirty inches long, and round, and only differ from those of the
elephant in curving slightly downward, The chin projects as far
as the tusks.
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