Pleistocene vertebrates from Celebes : V. Lower molars of Archididiskodon celebense Hooijer

Since 1948 Mr. H. R. van Heekeren, then prehistorian to the Archaeological Survey of the Dutch East Indies, kept up an intermittent search for fossil teeth and bones that occur in association with Palaeolithic artifacts at Beru and Sompoh, near Tjabenge (Sopeng district), about 100 km Northeast of Macassar in Southwestern Celebes. These sites are now known to yield an interesting vertebrate fauna, presumably Pleistocene in age, the first found elements of which were described a few years ago (Hooijer, 1948, 1949). One of the most remarkable discoveries in the Tjabengè area made by Mr. Van Heekeren is a small elephantine that I have named Archidiskodon celebensis (Hooijer, 1949). It was based on an almost complete and unworn upper molar, and on a similar but worn specimen, while parts of an ulna and a tibia were also described. I ventured to interpret these fossils as belonging to a dwarf archidiskodont elephant (standing about six feet high at the shoulder when adult), in a curious way retaining the characters of Archidiskodon planifrons (Falconer et Cautley) from which I took the Celebes elephantine to have been derived. It is a great pleasure, again, to acknowledge my indebtedness to Prof. Dr. A. J. Bernet Kempers, Head of the Dinas Purbakala R.I. at Djakarta, Java, who entrusted the Celebes fossil vertebrates to me for study. Moreover, I wish to thank Dr. Edwin H. Colbert of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, for stimulating discussions and kind advice. The proboscidean remains to be described below are the best specimens that Mr. Van Heekeren ever collected in Celebes in the years 1948 to and including 1950, and credit should go to him especially for his perseverance in the field without which these valuable specimens would never have been collected.