MACKOTHERIUM 34-7 



phalangeal bone, on which that evidence was founded, by the 

 remark, that " nothing proves better the importance of the 

 laws of comparative osteology than all the consequences which 

 one may legitimately draw from a single fragment." One will- 

 ingly admits the proof so afforded of the former existence of 

 animals now unknown ; but one may demur to the conclusion 

 that their extinction was due to some sudden catastrophe. 



The single mutilated ungual phalanx on which Cuvier 

 based his conclusions in regard to the species in question was 

 discovered, associated with remains of Rhinoceros, Mastodon, 

 Dinotherium, and Tapir, in a formation near Eppelsheim, 

 Hesse-Darmstadt, which is now determined to belong to the 

 miocene division of the tertiary series. This phalanx shows 

 two distinctive characters of the edentate order : — 1st, Its 

 posterior surface for articulation with the antepenultimate 

 phalanx is a double pulley, hollowed out on each side, with a 

 salient crest between, constituting the firm kind of ginglymoid 

 joint peculiar to certain Edentata; 2d, The concave arch 

 formed by that pulley curves furthest backward at its upper 

 part, which would prevent the claw being retracted upward, 

 as in the cat tribe, and constrain the flexion downward — 

 " ainsi c'est necessairement un ongueal d'edente." To the 

 foregoing characters are joined two others which Cuvier 

 believed to determine " as necessarily" the genus. The spe- 

 cies of Myrmecophaga have on the upper part of the pointed 

 end of the claw-phalanx a groove, indicative of a disposition to 

 bifurcate ; in the species of Manis the bifurcation is complete, 

 the cleft extending as far as the middle of the claw-bone : so 

 likewise in this fossil. The Pangolins {Manis) have not those 

 bony sheaths which, in the sloths, some ant-eaters and arma- 

 dillos, rise from the base and cover the root of the claw ; there 

 was a like absence of any claw-sheath in the fossil. Thus the 

 fossil claw-bone has no homologue hi existing nature save those 

 * Ossemens Fossilcs, 4to, t. v.. pt. i., p. 10::. 



