VERTEBRATE PALAEONTOLOGY IN 1913 637 



article by Dr. O. Abel which I have not yet seen ; the subject 

 being as much zoological as palaeontological, bare mention 

 of the communication must suffice. Nearly as brief notice must 

 also suffice for an article by Mr. Gidley {Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 

 vol. xliv. pp. 649-54) on a remarkably fine skeleton of a 

 zeuglodont recently set up in the American Museum. For 

 these primitive whales the author retains the extremely inappro- 

 priate name Basilosaurns, despite the fact that it was replaced by 

 its sponsor, Sir R. Owen, by Zeuglodon when the mammalian 

 nature of the remains, which were at first regarded as per- 

 taining to a reptile, became apparent. 



In an article on the ancestry of the mammals of the order 

 Edentata, published in the American Museum Journal (vol. xii. 

 pp. 300-3), Dr. Matthew, after mentioning that armadillos are 

 probably the most primitive existing members of the whole 

 group, and that remains of "armadillos without armour" occur 

 in the early North American Tertiary, observes that although 

 neither the latter nor the rodent-like taeniodonts of the North 

 American Eocene can be regarded as direct ancestors of the 

 typical South American edentates, such as sloths and anteaters, 

 yet they suggest the possibility that the group originally came 

 from North America, penetrated to South America about the 

 beginning of the Tertiary period, where they developed into a 

 host of new forms, which constituted a most important element 

 in the fauna of the country. 



Remains of ground-sloths of the genera Nothrotherium and 

 Megalonyx from the Pleistocene of Southern California form the 

 subject of an article by Mr. Chester Stock {Univ. California Pub., 

 Bull. Dep. Geol. vol. vii. pp. 341-50), in which a new species of 

 each genus is named and described ; most of the bones being 

 from the asphalt-beds of Rancho La Brea, referred to in an earlier 

 paragraph of the present review. As Megalonyx is typically from 

 the North American Pleistocene, while Nothrotherium (formerly 

 Ccelodon) is Brazilian, Southern California is precisely the locality 

 where the two might be expected to be found in association. 

 Remains of both genera are much less abundant at Rancho La 

 Brea than are those of Mylodon. 



As regards marsupials, the only paper that has come under 

 my notice is one by Dr. E. C. Stirling {Mem. R. Soc. S. Australia, 

 a, vol. i. pp. 128-78), in which conclusive evidence is adduced to 

 show that the upper incisors described by Sir R. Owen as 



