On the fossil remains of two new species of mastodon, and of other vertebrated animals, found of the left bank of the Irawadi / by William Clift.

  • Clift, William, 1775-1849.
Date:
[1828]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the fossil remains of two new species of mastodon, and of other vertebrated animals, found of the left bank of the Irawadi / by William Clift. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    XXIV.—On the Fossil Remains of two Neiv Species of Mastodon, and of other vertehrated Animals, found on the left Bank of the Irawadi. By william CLIFT, Esq., P.G.S. F.R.S. &c. CONSERVATOR OF THE MUSEUM OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS. [Read April 18th, 1828.] In describing the fossil remains collected by Mr. Crawfurd during his mis- sion to the Burman Empire, and which his liberality has placed in the Museum of the Geological Society, I conceive that I shall best execute the task intrust- ed to me, by a strict adherence to zoological and anatomical detail; leaving- all geological inferences to Dr. Buckland, who has undertaken that depart- ment, and who is so well qualified to do ample justice to it. But before I proceed to my descriptions, it is necessary to express my great obligations to Mr. Broderip, the Secretary of this Society, for the very valuable assistance which he has afforded me on several important points con- nected with the subject. In the arrangement of the materials before me, the system of Cuvier is followed, according to which 1 have first to treat of the PACHYDERMATA. Mastodon. Fossil species of this genus have already been found in America and in Europe, and are so well known at the present day, that it would be super- fluous to enumerate the various accounts which have been given of them. But I cannot pass over the Ossemens Fossiles ” of M. Cuvier, who has entered so luminously into the history of these extinct animals ; more espe- cially as he has, after describing M. giganteum and M. angustidens, given a chapter on certain teeth belonging to the genus Mastodon, which appear to him to indicate the existence of species different from those two which he had already recorded*. The teeth, according to the figures given, which come * Ossem. Foss. tom. i. p, 266. VOL. II.—SECOND SERIES. 3 C