ELEPHANT TUSKS
The story
of the slow and gradual evolution of mammoth and elephant from the
earliest stages naturally leads up to a more special presentment of the
facts regarding their wonderful tusks, at once the pride and the bane
of these last survivors of the monsters of far-off times. Indeed, it
may be said that the importance of the elephant in our day results
almost exclusively from the utilization of ivory in the arts and
industries. Still, it is well to remember that these marvellously
developed teeth have been evolved in harmony with the general
structural development of the elephant. The progressive change in the
length of the tusks conditioned a reciprocal change in the form of the
skull. Each stage of the individual development represents the results
of an effort to establish an equilibrium between skull and tusks, this
equilibrium being progressively disturbed by a lengthening of the tusks
and again reestablished by a corresponding change in the skull. This
reciprocal process of growth continues at least up to the full
maturity of the individual elephant. What is true of the individual
must also have been true of the successive stages in the development of
the various elephant species, the changes here taking place, however,
with less regularity and with occasional periods of interruption,
although the principle and cause are the same.*
*W.
Soergel, "Die Stammesgeschichte der Elephanten," Centralblatt für
Mineralogie, Geologie and Paläontolgie," 1915, No. 7, April 1st;
Stuttgart, 1915, pp. 208, 209.
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