vi] DISTRIBUTION OF SELECTED GROUPS 121 



The Cape ant-eater, Orycteropus, with other 

 species in West and East Africa ; fossil from Miocene 

 France, Pliocene Samos and Persia and Pleistocene 

 Madagascar. 



All the other Edentates are American, appearing 

 suddenly in a great variety of forms in the Upper 

 Miocene of South America ; extending to North 

 America with the Pliocene. 



Ground-sloths, Megatherium, etc. are now extinct. 

 Neomylodon (=Grypothermm domesticum), with dried 

 skin and hair, has been found recently in a Patagonian 

 cave. 



Armadillos with an abundance of Tertiary genera, 

 are now much reduced in numbers. The nine-banded 

 armadillo has the widest range, from Argentina to 

 Texas. 



Ant-eaters, Myrmecophaga, and sloths, Bradypus, 

 are confined to tropical America. 



If the Edentates of the Old and New World are 

 related to each other, they may be the remainder of 

 an old Afro-Indian fauna of Eocene date. They could 

 have spread by Asia Minor into Europe ; or some of 

 the common stock may have found their way to 

 Brazil where they developed into the ' Xenarthra' 

 typical of South America, whence by the end of the 

 Miocene they could extend into North America, 

 although no longer into the Antilles. If, however, 

 the Taeniodonts and Ganodonts of the Lowest and 



