96 MOSTLY MAMMALS 



of apertures for bristles, the same smoothness doubtless 

 characterised the carapace. The head was protected by a 

 smooth shield of small tesselated plates, and the skull was 

 characterised by the peculiar twisting and curvature of 

 the bones of the nose. 



Such are the chief characteristics of the better-known 

 representatives of the mailed monsters of Argentina — a 

 group which was continued in a straight line from the 

 pigmy gl3'ptodon of Patagonia to the ring-tailed species of 

 the Pampas, while all the other giant forms of the latter 

 must be regarded as lateral offshoots from the original 

 stock, which continued, as is so often the case, to develop 

 more and more bizarre characters until the date of their 

 final disappearance. In conclusion, it should be added that 

 a strange, gigantic armoured creature, found commonly in 

 the cavern deposits of Brazil, and also rarely in Argentina, 

 seems to have been a kind of connecting link between 

 the glyptodons and the armadillos, having the carapace 

 formed of a number of movable plates, arranged in a series 

 of overlapping bands as in the latter, but with teeth of 

 the type of the former. Unfortunately, however, this 

 interesting creature, which must have been as big as a 

 large rhinoceros, is known by such fragmentary remains 

 that its full affinities cannot yet be determined, as we are 

 still ignorant whether its skull approximated to the glypto- 

 don or the armadillo type. 



Sufficiently protected from all attacks on the part of the 

 wolf-like marsupials and such other large carnivorous 

 mammals as may at the same period have roamed over 

 Argentina, the pigmy glyptodon of the Santa Cruz beds of 

 Patagonia could have had no difficulty in maintaining its 

 existence against foes of all kinds, and subsequently giving 

 rise to the gigantic mailed monsters described above. 



