very heavy pelvic girdle anil limlis. In addition to tlrs there was 

 a very stoul tail, sufficiently strong to form with the hind legs, :i 

 tripod upon which to stand while reaching into the trees for leaves 

 .■mil tender twigs. Judging from the skeleton, this animal must have 

 measured as much as 22 or 25 feel from tip to tip. lis weight 

 was perhaps thai of a large nx. The strong peg-like teeth are se1 

 some distance from each other in the jaws. These occur only as 

 check teeth there being mi incisors. The absence of these gives them 

 the name Edentates, meaning without teeth. 



The Ias1 joinl of each toe is tipped with a very sharp, curved 

 claw instead of a hunt', as was suspected, judging from the Hat teeth. 

 The daws in fidiit were doubtless used I'm reaching into the trees 

 for food, and for digging roots. In this way the animal was so 

 amply able to defend itself as to render a successful attack from an 

 enemy almost impossible. Especially was this tme since the pebble- 

 like I s (called scntest imbedded in the skin made it almost impene- 

 trable. Little was known aboul the character of the sloth skin until 

 ten or twelve years ago, when a well preserved piece of dried skin 

 was found, having on the outside a growth of coarse hair and pebble- 

 like bones imbedded within the skin. The discovery, made by Dr. F. 



I'. More f Chili.-Argentine Boundary Commission, at Last Hope 



Inlet, in Patagonia, solved the mystery, and led to the search of a cave 

 near by, where wore found other remains, which pointed undoubtedly 

 to the ground sloth as the real possessor of the skin. Dr. A. Smith 

 Woodward of the British Museum, after a careful study of this piece 

 of skill, showed that it had come from the ground sloth. It is inter- 

 esting to note that this peculiar beast of our beds was covered with 

 scanty coarse hair, resembling on the one hand the living tree sloth 

 of South America, and on the other hand, by 1 he dermal, pebble-like 

 bones (scutes), the bony armor of the armadillos of the same region. 





Skin of Gianl Ground Sloth. 





Caudal vertebrae of Giant 

 Ground Sloth. 



How this skin, discovered in Patagonia, was SO well preserved 

 through the thousands of years is yet unknown. Many pounds of these 

 scutes have been found in the Urea beds, and Dr. .1. ( '. Merriam reports 



a very interesting find of a section of asphalt containing a shoulder blade 

 iif Hie ground sloth with a layer of pebble bones over it. This line 

 illustration of the remarkable armor is on exhibition in the .Museum 

 at Berkeley. 



While excavating, the writer found on several occasions several 

 patches four or live inches square covered with these scutes. One 

 piece was of much larger si/.e. Some of the s Miles Were Very close 



together, others were almost an inch apart. Being related to the living 



armadillos ami sloths, our fossil form must have had some ancestors 



41 



