300 



ORDERS OF MAMMALTA. 



and Africa have the Scaly Ant-eaters or Pangolins; and 

 in Africa occurs the Edentate genus Orydcro'pus. South 

 America, however, is the metropolis of the Edentata, the 



Fig. 010.— Skull of a living Sloth {Bradyims atcuUiger). (After Gieliel.) 



order being there represented by the Sloths, the Armadillos, 

 and the true Ant-eaters. It is also in South America that 

 by far the greater number of extinct Edentates have been 

 found ; and, as in the case of the Australian Marsupials, the 

 fossil forms are gigantic in size as compared with their living 

 representatives. 



The oldest well-known representative of the Edentata is 

 the Macrotherium of the Miocene Tertiary of France. This 

 is a gigantic Edentate, intermediate in some respects be- 

 tween the Pangolins {Manis) and the Aardwark {Oryctcropus). 

 There does not appear to have been any dermal armour, and 

 the teetli are rootless and destitute of enamel. The toes 

 were furnished with immense claws, which were bent in- 

 wards upon the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, 

 in consequence of the flexion of the first phalanges upon 

 the metacarpals and metatarsals. The animal, therefore, 

 doubtless walked, like the existing Ant - eaters {Myrme- 

 cophaga), upon the outer sides of the feet. The hind-limlis 

 were much shorter than the fore - limbs, wliich to some 

 extent would support the view that the animal was n 

 climber ; but its great size would render it unlikely tliat the 

 habits of the genus were arboreal. 



Another ancient genus of Edentates is the Ancylotherivm 

 of M. Gaudry. Phalanges, apparently referable to a species 



