. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. 326 CONTRIBUTION TO THE MOEPHOLOGY OF THE MAMMOTH. on the neck and body. The very thick woolly hair which forms the underfur has an average length of -i or 5 cm. At the end of the entirely hairy tail were, in certain places at least, a number of long- bristles a millimeter thick, which here formed a dense tuft. The color of the bristles must have been rust brown originally, somewhat lighter or darker on various parts of the body. In the rem
. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science. 326 CONTRIBUTION TO THE MOEPHOLOGY OF THE MAMMOTH. on the neck and body. The very thick woolly hair which forms the underfur has an average length of -i or 5 cm. At the end of the entirely hairy tail were, in certain places at least, a number of long- bristles a millimeter thick, which here formed a dense tuft. The color of the bristles must have been rust brown originally, somewhat lighter or darker on various parts of the body. In the remains preserved, this hair has become lighter through bleaching, varying from dull fox red to fawn brown. The woolly hair varies from light fawn to yellowish brown. The most essential distinguishing character of Elephas primi- geniuH, and indeed of all proboscidians living and extinct, is found in the incisor teeth. Through the discovery of the Beresovka Mam- moth the question of their position in the skull and of their cur- vature and the direc- tion of the tips was settled in a most posi- tive manner, as al- ready mentioned. In the Beresovka Mammoth only one tusk—^the left—was found, and this one, indeed, was no longer in j)lace when the expedition a r r i v e d. The discoverer of the carcass had destroyed a portion of the up- per alveolar wall by strokes of a hatchet and had then sepa- rated the tusk from the alveolus and carried it to Kolymsk, where it was stored away by the authorities. Upon fitting the tusk into the alveolus, it was immediately demonstrated that it belonged to our slveleton. The reconstruction of the skeleton having been intrusted to me, I was able to convince myself that the original position of the tusk in the alveolus could be determined in an unquestionably correct man- ner by inspection of the hatchet strokes. The strokes by which the wall of the alveolus was cracked off had indented the surface of the tusk. If the latter, Avhich was only broken a
Size: 1526px × 1637px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorsmithsonianinstitutio, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840
