. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution . opment of the air cells, while thebrain cavity increases comparatively little, just as one would predictfrom the struc-ture of the adult _ o^skull. Of the pre-natal life of theelephant, cover-ing a period oftwenty months,we know very lit-tle, but it is rea-sonable to sup-pose that embry-ology would giveus much morelight upon thedevelopment ofelephantine fea-tures. Xew-bornyoung are ele-phant-like inevery particularwith the excep-tion of the skull. Paleontologii. The g r e a tproof of the evo-lution of a race fig. an
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution . opment of the air cells, while thebrain cavity increases comparatively little, just as one would predictfrom the struc-ture of the adult _ o^skull. Of the pre-natal life of theelephant, cover-ing a period oftwenty months,we know very lit-tle, but it is rea-sonable to sup-pose that embry-ology would giveus much morelight upon thedevelopment ofelephantine fea-tures. Xew-bornyoung are ele-phant-like inevery particularwith the excep-tion of the skull. Paleontologii. The g r e a tproof of the evo-lution of a race fig. animals is the finding in the ancient rocks more and more primitive forms as onerecedes in time, until the most archaic type is reached. By the studyof such a series of fossils not only may the evolutionary changes belearned, but former geographical distributions, the original home,and the various migrations of the race. Wliile this matter is treatedmuch more fully in the second and third parts of this paper, a briefsummary of the racial history may be given as follows:. -Sectiou of skull young (Xi), and old ( X i;)Flowers Octeology. from 650 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. The earliest known proboscidians were discovered in the EgyptianFayiim, in beds of middle Eocene age. Their remains are also foundin the upper Eocene of the Fayum, but the Oligocene elephants areas yet undiscovered. During the early Miocene the first migrationoccurred into Europe and thence to the region of India and even asfar as North America, both of which were reached by the middleMiocene. The Pliocene saw the elephants in their millenium, havingreached the widest dispersal and the maximum in numbers of Pleistocene times the Proboscidia covered all of the great landmasses except Australia, but were diminishing in numbers, andtoward the close of the Pleistocene the period of decadence began,resulting in the extinction of all but the Indian and African elephantsof to-day. SUMMARY
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