GIGANTIC EXTINCT ARMADILLOS. 141 



fall in its way, as well as to convey other food to the mouth with more 

 readiness. The elongated, protrusible tongue of recent species, as well 

 as of the remaining representatives of the order, gives a clew to the 

 nature of the tongue of the extinct giant armadillos, which was prob- 

 ably used as a herbage-grasping organ, as in the giraffe, and as Prof. 

 Owen finds reason to believe must have been the case with the great 

 extinct sloths, Megatherium^ and its allies. It is highly probable, nay, 

 almost certain, that the prehensile powers of the tongues of the Eden- 

 tata ' are intimately associated with their want of incisors, or cutting- 

 teeth. Similar disappearance or loss of function of the incisors by 

 ruminants, proboscidians, and rhinoceroses, is similarly correlated with 

 a grasping tongue, trunk, or lips. 



In living armadillos the grinding-teeth vary in number from twenty- 

 six to thirty-eight, and are in the form of cylindrical or oval columns. 

 All the Hoplophoridce have thirty-two grinders, sixteen above and the 

 same number below, without enamel, as in recent forms. Two deep 

 grooves run vertically up and down on both the inside and outside of 

 each tooth, causing the appearance of two deep bays on each side in 

 transverse section, Which is not quite twice as long as wide. Unlike liv- 

 ing allied forms, these giants had strong descending processes directed 

 downward from the zygomatic arches (cheekbones), similar to those of 

 the great extinct and small modern sloths ; and, like the first of the last 

 mentioned, the bones of the pelvis, hind-limbs, and tail, were relatively 

 more massive than in their existing representatives, showing in these 

 features strong resemblances to the sloth-like division of the order. 

 From the deep implantation of the grinding-teeth in the giant arma- 

 dillos, one cannot resist the inference that, like the great sloths, they 

 were herbivorous. This idea is further countenanced by their size, 

 which, in terrestrial mammals, is usually an accompaniment of herbivor- 

 ous habits. The features, however, which unmistakably ally them to 

 living armadillos, are the presence of a third trochanter on the femur, 

 and the union of the tibia and fibula and the annular and tubular armor 

 covering the tail. The animal of our figure has the basal part of the 

 tail surrounded and covered with eight slightly mobile rings of armor- 

 plates; each one of these rings is supported on the inside by five strong 

 processes of bone which arise radially or like the spokes of a wheel from 

 each of the first seven caudal vertebne. The first caudal vertebra sup- 

 ports two of the armor-rings. The last fourteen joints of the tail are 

 inclosed by rigid armor, much the same as the end of the finger is cov- 

 ered by a thimble. These terminal joints, confined within this inflexi- 

 ble bony case, become united into a continuous bony rod. Other species 

 have been described which have the tail covered throughout with rings 

 of armor-plates, within which each joint of the tail is separate, as usual 

 in the tails of other vertebrates. In one living species the tail is almost 



1 The total length of the tongue in the ant-bear (Myrmecophaga), from its origin at the 

 xiphoid end of the breastbone, is three feet. 



