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His Lordship the Elephant -,Big and Clever Descendant EVOLUTION OF THE ELEPHANT of Piglike Pigmy By GUY MURCHIE JR. ~E story of the elephant Present' Day J. ~~a story in superlatives. African Elephant Not only is he the largest [Elephes ILoxodon I land animal, but careful check- africanus) ing of facts points to the ele- phant as the probable real king of beasts. There are few re- ports of his having been defeat- ed in mortal combat by other creatures. He is almost invul- nerable to attack and clever in his actions. Among his peculiar attributes are his trunk, which.serves both as arm and nose; his great tusks, which have been known to attain a length of lllh feet A group of African elephant. at a waterhole. The.e anhnala are .Ughtly bigger than the Asiatic variety .hown below. WhUe a cow African and to weigh 293 pounds; his elephant with calf i. conaidered very dangeroull. the elephant normally is not ho.tile. (WI'" World photo.) pillarlike legs, which appear jointless as he stands erect; his seven Indian mahouts imported thick hide, which gives him the in 1920 as instructors. Half· name pachyderm, and his head, grown wild elephants are cho- , One of the Mammoths sen for training, which is car- in which his smallish brain is (Elephas imperator) ried on for ten years before the protected by so many surround- About ing bony cavities that only a 250,000 Years Ago animal is strong enough for very carefully aimed bullet can regular w 0 I' k. Attempts to shorten the period of training reach it. It might be well to begin by in the past have always ended answering the questions: "Who in the death of the animal." is the elephant? What is his e e e family history, and how did he get this way?" A description of the Indian e e e elephant at work says: "A log that forty coolies can scarcely Strange as it may seem, the move, the elephant will quietly mighty elephant's closest living lift upon his tusks and, holding relative is the gentle little rock it there with his trunk, will rabbit, or coney, of Africa. In carry it to whatever part of the outward appearance it would be yard he may be directed by his hard to find two animals more One of the Mastodons (Mastodon american us I driver. He w ill also, using ,dissimilar, for, even if magni- trunk, feet, and tusks, pile the fied to the great size of his cous- About 500,000 Years Ago huge timbers with the utmost in, the coney would appear en- precision. It is surprising to tirely different in shape. It is see the sagacious animal select only by a very careful analysis and pick out particular timbers of skeletal structure, especially in the feet, that zoologtsts have proved the relationship, and _ Tetrabelodol1 how it came about is a whim of 10,000,000 Years Ago evolution. The kinship dates back to the Eocene age of some forty mil- Mcx:rith<:rium lion years ago, when the primi- 40,000,000 Yours Ago tive stock of animals began to ...••. divide up into the more or less (Ewlna' GallAway photo.) distinct groups we recognize Palaeomastodon ~ Thi. trained A.laUc elephant I. doing a trick commonly performed before today. In those days there was 30,000,000 Years Ago toUristll. A big tusker can eaaily IUt a ton of lumber thu•• neither elephant nor coney in I the world, but there was a pig- Tbi. drawing .ugge." the lavish caprice of evolution. wbich In producing RANGE OF ASIATIC like pigmy of an animal with a the modem elephant tried out many modell. A few are here .hown in pointed snout, the mreritherium, correct .cale. R-•••NGE OF AFRICAN ELEPHANT which is now known to have / been the common ancestor of tlon for eating. This extinct of the Congo and standing only L...- --"'=..:.-' ---l both. At some time shortly species was actually a little about five feet high. The white larger than the elephants, but elephants which turn up every The elephant family, which once ranged the worleLnow is limited to the thereafter the rattier individuals territorie. here .hown. of this species began to live the direct line of elephant an- now and then in Burma and cestry goes back in diminishing Siam are merely albino individ- apart from the more tapirlike a swimmer and is quite at home from the center of a large heap individuals until two separate stages to its tapirlike forbears. uals of the Asiatic elephant race. Some people have an idea that Some sixty of them have been in the deepest water, sometimes at the driver's command. The species were created, the rattier elephants are directed by spoken prehistoric creatures were all recorded in history, mostly of swimming for hours at a time one becoming smaller and more orders, pressure of the driver's gigantic like the dinosaurs and a mottled pink skin and pinkish with the body entirely' sub- r~dentl1ke, while the tapirlike feet, and the goad. Some- brontosauruses, but actually eyes, due to the absence of bod)' merged and only the head and one developed great size and a trunk appearing above the sur- times an animal will break hIs long proboscis, or trunk, which these reptiles were exceptional pigment characteristic of albi- and died out leaving no de- nos. The Siamese believe them face." tusks from being forced by an is really an elaboration of both ignorant or brutal driver to scendants. The largest animal sacred and traditionally have One would not think ot!hand upper lip and nose. carry an excessive load, but gen- that evolution has ever devel- presented them to the kings for that a little thing like a germ In this latter line of develop- could greatly disturb the mighty erally he k now s his own ment were produced the ancient oped, for instance, lives today use in royal processions and reo in the person of the blue whale, ligious ceremonies. elephant or that he would faint strength and refuses to lift mastodons and mol' e recent , - The biggest elephant on reo- easily, yet the truth is that ele- more than' his tusks will bear. m a m mot h s, all elephantlike which is considerably over 100 ~!"'1""".lf,... .;.._, l • phants have little resistance to Should these break of! close to beasts of great size, some varie- feet in length. ord was an African elephant 12 (Field Muaewn photo.) either disease or shock. Accord- the head, the elephant would ties of which became extinct feet 2 inches high, shot by Os- Skull of an Ala.kan mammoth. an early IIpecie. of elephant. on exhibition e e e ing to Vevers: "Many have been die; if only cracked they are and others of which were the well, the n ot e d hunter. It In the Field Mu.eum of Natural Hilltory. known to lie down and die of a bound with iron and rendered direct ancestors of the modern The elephants of today may weighed about seven or eight be broadly grouped into two tons. Few mammoths were broken heart when given too as serviceable as before." elephants. The hairy mam- eighteen to twenty-two months. to eight miles an hour. Zoolo- Knowledge of the elephant is races, the Asiatic or Indian ele- much bigger than that, but the great a burden to carry, and moths of Siberia, for instance, As to the elephant's agility, gist G. M. Vevers, superintend- increasing yearly. Certainly the phant, which is the common very biggest of all the elephant's ent of the London zoo, says: they succumb to anthrax in a probably died out only a few it is pertinent to read the inter- world knows him far better elephant of the circus, and the prehistoric cousins measured a "Both species of elephants are very few hours after the bacillus thousand years ago, and speci- esting statement of Zoologist today than it did a few hundred larger, bigger-eared African ele- little over sixteen feet at the fast movers over 'a short dis- of that dread disease has found mens have been found frozen in Ernest Protheroe, F. Z. S., con- years ago when Shakespeare, phant, who includes among his shoulder. This is proved by the tance, and a speed of fifteen an entry into the blood stream; the northern ice in such a re- cerning the elephant's legs: "In accepting the common bellef kind a local race of pigmy ele- fossil remains of an elephant- miles an hour is not uncommon- in Burma alone this disease ac- markable state of preservation order to support the enormous that an elephant cannot lie phants living in the hinterland like creature discovered in India 'ly kept up for a quarter of a counts for the death of several that the meat was in fit condi- weight which rests upon them down, wrote of him in "Troilus and known as the Narbada ele- mile or so, but whereas the Af- thousands of these animals every the legs are very stout and are and Cressida" (act II., scene phant. As far as is known it rican can keep up a speed of ten year." If free of disease and set perpendicularly, without 3) : "The elephant hath joints, was the biggest beast that ever miles an hour for several hours shock an elephant may live 100 that b,end in the hinder leg but none for courtesy; his legs wore a trunk.

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