GIANT ARMADILLO 179 



5 1 , with a large intestine of no less than 7 feet ; D. vellerosus 

 4-3 and -66. 



Priodon is the giant of its race. This Armadillo may 

 reach a length of 3 feet to the base of the tail. The tail is 

 some 20 inches long. The large number of teeth has been already 

 noticed. There are twelve or thirteen bands. Other points 

 in the structure of this genus have already been mentioned, and 

 need not be recapitulated. This Armadillo feeds upon termites 

 and carrion. 



Scleropleura is unfortunately but imperfectly known. The 

 single species, named by Milne-Edwards 1 S. fyruneti, is apparently 

 a very rare inhabitant of Brazil. It is known by a single skin, 

 which was tanned by the hunter who obtained it. Thus the 

 hair, if any, has dropped out. The plates in the skin are 

 deficient along the back and even upon the top of the head, and 

 are barely represented upon the tail posteriorly. The ears are 

 small and distant from each other. The tail is longish, about 

 one-third of the length of the body. The total length of the 

 creature including the tail is rather more than a foot and a half. 

 The hunter who obtained it regarded it as a hybrid between an 

 Armadillo and an Anteater. 



Extinct Xenarthra. There are a good many extinct forms 

 of Armadillo, apart of course from the Glyptodons. Feltephilus 

 is referred to later (p. 186). Dasypus was represented by a large 

 form, 6 feet long, with a skull of one foot in length. The genus 

 Eutatus was also large. The carapace was formed of thirty-three 

 distinct bands, of which the last twelve are soldered together, but 

 not fused into a shield as in Dasypus, etc. 



An extinct group of American Edentates, termed the GRAVI- 

 GRADA, 2 are somewhat intermediate between the Sloths and the 

 Anteaters. A number of the genera are well known from com- 

 plete skeletons. 



One of the typical forms of this group is Mylodon, which, 

 together with its immediate allies, is often placed in a separate 

 family, Mylodontidae. 



Mylodon itself was a large creature, as big as a Rhinoceros. 

 It was covered externally by armour in the skin, which did not 

 form a massive armature as in the Glyptodonts, but was in the 



1 Milne-Edwards, Nouv. Arch. Mas. vii. 1871, p. 177. 

 2 See especially Lydckker, An. Mus. La Plata, Pal. Art/, iii. 1894. 



