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If we accept M. Lartet's interpretation of the ossiferous deposits of Aurignac, both inside and outside the grotto, they add nothing to the palaeontological evidence in favour of Man's antiquity, for we have seen all the same mammalia associated elsewhere with flint implements, and some species, such as the Elephas antiquus, Rhinoceros hemitoechus, and Hippopotamus major, missing here, have been met with in other places.
These remains consist of, first, the head of Ctenomys antiquus, allied to the living Ctenomys Braziliensis; secondly, a fragment of the remains of a rodent; thirdly, molar teeth and other bones of a large rodent, closely allied to, but distinct from, the existing species of Hydrochoerus, and therefore probably an inhabitant of fresh water; fourth and fifthly, portions of vertebrae, limbs, ribs, and other bones of two rodents; sixthly, bones of the extremities of some great megatheroid quadruped.
The Elephas antiquus and its associated Rhinoceros leptorhinus may have preceded the mammoth and tichorhine rhinoceros in the valley of the Thames, or both may have alternately prevailed in the same area in the Pleistocene period.
Although few geologists can aspire to such knowledge, which must be the result of long practice and study, they will nevertheless derive great advantage from learning, what is comparatively an easy task, to distinguish the principal divisions of the mammalia by the forms and characters of their teeth. Post-pliocene. a. Grinding surface. b. Elephas antiquus, Falconer.
Beneath the gravel containing these large erratics, is a blue mud in which skeletons of Elephas antiquus, and other mammalia, have been observed. Still lower occurs a sandy loam, from which Mr.
Two of these species, however, he has always considered as doubtful, Stegodon ganesa, probably a mere variety of one of the others, and Elephas priscus of Goldfuss, founded partly on specimens of the African elephant, assumed by mistake to be fossil, and partly on some aberrant forms of E. antiquus.
We obtained, at the same time, large pieces of Labularia digitata, Sertularia abietina, upon which nothing of the animal kind was to be seen, but attached to which was frequently found Flustra dentata; also Pagurus Bernhardus, Fusus antiquus, Rostellaria pes pelecani, Cardium echinatum, Ascidia Prunum, Balanus sulcatus, Echinus saxatilis, and Spatangus flavescens.
They might easily have been overlooked or confounded with the general glacial drift of the neighbourhood, had not the bed of lignite, which is from 5 to 12 feet thick, been worked for fuel, during which operation many organic remains came to light. Among these are the teeth of Elephas antiquus, determined by Dr.
In the fossil fauna of the valley of the Thames, Rhinoceros leptorhinus was mentioned as occurring at Gray's Thurrock with Elephas antiquus. Dr.
No proofs seem yet to have been found of the existence of Man at the period when the hippopotamus and Elephas antiquus flourished at San Ciro. But there is another cave called the Grotto di Maccagnone, which much resembles it in geological position, on the opposite or west side of the Bay of Palermo, near Carini.
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