The Supposed Existing Ground-Sloth 

 of Patagonia. 



By A. Smith Woodward. 



Much interest was aroused a year ago by Dr. Ameghino's announce- 

 ment in Natural Science of the discovery of a piece of skin of a ground- 

 sloth in Patagonia. 1 He supposed the specimen to belong to a small 

 surviving representative of the gigantic extinct ground-sloths which 

 were so abundant in the Pleistocene period in South America, and 

 were known to have existed at least until the appearance of man in 

 that country. Dr. Ameghino thought that this piece of skin might 

 have belonged to a mysterious animal which had been described to 

 him by the traveller Ptamon Lista, so he named the new creature 

 Neomylodon listai. With admirable conciseness he pointed out the 

 main features of the skin — how it was completely covered with long 

 dense hair, while being at the same time armoured by a close pave- 

 ment of small nodules of bone embedded in the lower layer. He also 

 quite correctly recognised that the bony armour was most closely 

 paralleled by that dug up with the skeleton of the great extinct 

 Mylodon in the Pampa formation in various parts of the Argentine 

 Republic. 



More precise details of this discovery were subsequently published 

 by Dr. Moreno, Director of the La Plata Museum, and by Dr. Otto 

 Nordenskjold of Upsala ; w r hile a technical description of the skin 

 itself was prepared by Dr. Einar Lonnberg and myself. 2 These addi- 

 tional communications showed that the specimen in question was dug 

 up in the dust of the floor of a large cavern near Last Hope Inlet. 

 They also seemed to prove that Neomylodon listai must have been at 

 least as large as the well-known Mylodon — that is, not less in bulk 

 than a rhinoceros. Notwithstanding the fresh aspect of the piece of 

 skin, it thus appeared extremely improbable that the animal was still 

 living, and had escaped the notice both of the natives and of explorers. 

 Dr. Moreno, indeed, maintained that it was quite extinct, and dated 

 back to a time when a former race of men, unknown even to the 

 present Tehuelches, inhabited the southern extremity of the South 

 American continent. 



1 F. Ameghino, "An Existing Ground-Sloth in Patagonia," Natural Science, vol. xiii. 

 p. 324 (Nov. 1898). 



a See Natural Science, vol. xiv. p. 265 (April 1899). 



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