SOME EXTINCT ARGENTINE MAMMALS 95 



patches of minute tubercles, so that this species may be 

 spoken of as the tuberculated glyptodon. Doubtless the 

 carapace was covered during life by thin horny shields, 

 although the marks of these are not generally shown on 

 the bone ; and from the absence of bristles the creature 

 must have been as smooth as the small existing mulita, 

 or three-banded armadillo. The tail was much smaller than 

 that of the club-tailed species, consisting at the base of a 

 number of relatively small rings, and terminating in a tube 

 of about a yard in length. This tube lacks, however, the 

 terminal expansion and flattening of that of the preceding 

 form, while the large discs with which it is ornamented 

 take the form of prominent rough bosses, which probably 

 carried flattened horny knobs, instead of spines, during life. 



The last representatives of the group to which I shall 

 allude are much smaller species from the deposits of 

 Monte Hermoso and the Pampas, known as smooth-tailed 

 glyptodons, or, technically, Hoplophorus. In these creatures 

 the carapace was much more elongated and depressed than 

 in the other kinds, while it projected forward on the sides 

 of the shoulders in a manner somewhat like that of the 

 armadillos. The plates of the carapace show a rosette 

 pattern, not unlike those of the ring-tailed glyptodon, but 

 they are still smoother, and of an irregular oblong shape. 

 As regards the tail, this consisted at the base of a number 

 of smooth rings, fitting into one another at their junctions 

 like the joints of a telescope, while at the end it terminated 

 in a slightly flattened tube ornamented with a number of 

 small, smooth oval discs of about an inch in diameter, 

 interspersed with which were arranged a few much larger 

 but equally smooth and prominent discs along the sides. 

 These discs, of all dimensions, were evidently coated with 

 smooth scales of horn during life, and, from the absence 



