Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/279

 MASTODON 267 name ; besides the upper incisors or tusks, the cheek teeth are fif, succeeding each other from behind forward, as in the elephant, only two or three being in use at a time ; during youth there were two short and straight tusks at the end of the lower jaw in the males, which were retained sometimes to adult life. The best known species is the North American masto- don (M. giganteus, Cuv., or M. Ohioticus of Falconer); this has been fully described in a superb work by Dr. John C. Warren, assisted by Dr. J. F. W. Lane (" The Mastodon Gigan- teus of North America," 2d ed., 4to, Boston, 1855), to which the reader is referred for the fullest details and abundant illustrations of most of the species. A few remains of the mastodon had been discovered in North Amer- ica as early as 1705, but not until 1801 was anything like a complete skeleton obtained, when a tolerably complete one was procured from the morasses of Orange co., N. Y. ; this was carried to London in 1802, but was soon returned to this country, where it occupied a prominent place in Peale's museum at Phila- Skeleton of Mastodon. delphia until 1849 or 1850, when it suddenly disappeared ; it was imperfect, wanting a con- siderable part of the head, some vertebras, ribs, and bones of the limbs; it was believed by Dr. Warren to have fallen into the possession of Prof. Kaup of Darmstadt, Germany. An- other skeleton, less perfect than the last, ob- tained at about the same time, was exhibited in Baltimore for years, and in a dismounted state came into the possession of Dr. Warren of Boston in 1848, where it still remains. About 1840 Mr. Koch procured a rich collec- tion of mastodon bones from the banks of the Missouri, and put together a nondescript ani- mal, the so-called Missourium, which drew crowds of visitors in New York and London, until from the mass of bones of several individ- uals a tolerably complete skeleton was made up by Prof. Owen, which is now in the British museum. The skeleton now at Cambridge, Mass., was discovered in Warren co., N. J., in 1844 ; with this young female were found four very perfect heads, a number of fine teeth, and several bones. The finest skeleton of this species is the one described by Dr. Warren in the work above mentioned ; it was discovered at Newburgh, N. Y., in 1845, in a swamp usual- ly covered with water, but left dry during that summer; it is now in Boston. Specimens have been found in New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama, Missouri, Kansas, Texas, and other states, and as far as lat. 65 N. Taking Dr. Warren's specimen as the type of this species, the cranium is flatter than in the elephant, narrow between the temporal fosses, the face becoming twice as wide below the nasal opening ; the length of the superior sur- face, from the vertex to the edge of the pre- maxillary bones, is 48 in., and the width be- tween the superior orbitar processes 28 in.; the posterior or occipital surface is nearly ver- tical, roughened for muscular attachments ; the temporal f OSSSB are of great size, indicating the power of the muscles which filled them; the zygomatic processes thick and strong; lower jaw V-shaped, the anterior pointed extremity having on the internal surface a long wide groove for the tongue. The cervical vertebras have short spinous processes, except the last, which is 6 in. long ; the dorsals are 20, and, with the 3 lumbar, form a considerable arch, the first 7 having very long spinous processes (that of the 3d, the longest, being 23 in.), and thence gradually diminishing to the last, which is only 4 in. ; the transverse processes are also very thick in the first seven ; the first lumbar measures across the transverse processes 17 in., of which the body is only 5 in. ; the sacrum consists of five bones, and is 20 in. long on the lower surface ; caudals probably about 22, very strong at the commencement of the tail, which reached to the knees. The pelvis is very strong and massive, 6 ft. 2 in. wide across the anterior superior spinous processes ; thorax rounded, its anterior opening 2 ft. from above downward and 1 ft. transversely; sternum keeled below, with a stout pointed protuber- ance in front. The ribs are 20, 13 true and 7 false, the first nearly vertical and resembling a clavicle, and 28 in. long; from this the ribs increase to the ninth, which is 54| in., and thence decrease to the last, which is 21 in. ; the fifth, flat anteriorly, is 4 in. wide; after the seventh they become rounded; they are not unfrequently found united, as after frac- ture. The scapula is more nearly equilateral and in this respect more human than in the elephant, and like some of the other bones might in rude ages be easily mistaken for the remains of giant men ; its spine is nearly ver- tical, bifurcating below, the infra- spinous fossa more than three times as ample as the supra- spinous, the former having generally a depres- sion near the spine ; the glenoid cavity is 11 by 5 in. The massive humerus is 39 in. long, and the same in its greatest circumference, with a remarkable projection extending two thirds down the limb for the deltoid muscle ; the circumference of the elbow joint is 44 in. ; radius 29 in. long and 6 in. wide below;