346 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 195 6 



eventual distribution of Spillmann's paper, Hoffstetter, in his memoir 

 on the Pleistocene mammals of Ecuador published by the Geological 

 Society of France in 1952, revised his allocation of the megatherid 

 sloths to Eremotherium carolinense Spillmann and Eremotherium 

 elenensis (Hoffstetter). He regarded the larger of the two, E. caro- 

 linense, as distinct from Venezuelan E. rusconii essentially on the basis 

 of geographic separation. 



In the meantime de Paula Couto in Brazil called attention in a note 

 published in Hoffstetter's 1949 paper to the possibility of "M." rus- 

 conii being a synonym of M. laurillardii, a species also having had a 

 complex and confused history, originally described by the Danish 

 paleontologist Lund in 1842 from caves in Minas Geraes, Brazil. 

 Nevertheless, as indicated by Hoffstetter, the type specimen described 

 by Lund consists of two small teeth, scarcely larger than tapir molars, 

 which are evidently immature and clearly inadequate for diagnostic 

 purposes, hence should probably be ignored or the name M. laurillardii 

 be left as a synonym of M. americanum as treated by Winge. In 1954 

 de Paula Couto retained both Spillmann's and Hoffstetter's species, 

 as well as Schaub's, and named a new subgenus and species, E. pseud- 

 eremotherium lundi, on the basis of a composite skeleton from the 

 state of Bahia. I suspect that a single tropical species is represented, 

 as suggested by the Panamanian materials; on the other hand, de 

 Paula Couto's allocation of Leidy's Megatherium mirabile from Geor- 

 gia to Eremotherium seems valid and the species may well be different. 

 In this case the Georgian species name would be much the oldest per- 

 taining to Eremotherium. 



FAUNAL ASSOCIATION AND RELATIVE AGE OF OCCURRENCES 



Although representation of the faunas associated with Eremotheri- 

 um at the two principal localities is very sparse, the evidence suggests 

 that the two assemblages were not the same, and may not have been 

 entirely contemporary. 



At La Coca, near Ocu, representation of two or possibly three indi- 

 viduals of Eremotherium was associated with the rather scant limb 

 and certain other fragmental materials of two individuals of Toxodon, 

 the large rhinolike notoungulate characteristic of the Pleistocene of 

 South America. No other forms were represented at this excavation. 



The El Hatillo excavation near Peso, on the other hand, uncovered 

 portions of certainly no less than eight, and probably more than a 

 dozen, individuals of the gigantic Eremotherium, including five com- 

 paratively good skulls, but with these there was no trace of Toxodon. 

 However, there were found associated skeletal portions of a single in- 

 dividual of the mastodon Cuvieronius, characterized by tusks having 

 enamel developed in a spiral form. Further representation of the 



