CHAPTER VIII 



EDENTATA — -GANODONTA 



Order II. EDENTATA 



Terrestkial, partly subterranean, or arboreal creatures of quite 

 small to gigantic size (some extinct genera), with frequently a 

 covering of scales or bony scutes. Limbs clawed. Teeth either 

 totally absent or, if present, imperfect in structure, being with- 

 out enamel, and not forming a complete series ; incisors and 

 canines being as a rule absent. Teats axillary, pectoral, or 

 inguinal.^ Retia mirabilia very common in the extremities. 



To this group the name of Bruta was given by Linnaeus, 

 but then it included not only the families which we now place 

 in the modern order Edentata, but also the Elephant and the 

 genus TricJiechus. Mr. Thomas has proposed to change the 

 name into Paratheria, which name is suggestive of what he and 

 some others think concerning the systematic position of the 

 group, i.e. that it is not to be placed in the Eutherian group of 

 mammals at all, but represents a separate twig which has arisen 

 with the Eutheria from a low mammalian stock. This view can 

 hardly be accepted if the Ganodonta — wliich will be treated of 

 presently — be really ancestral Edentates, for they are not in any 

 way a Prototherian mammalian group, so far as their remains 

 enable us to judge. 



The Edentata contain the Sloths, Ant-bears, Armadillos, 

 Manis and Orycteroiyus, among living forms. The great Ground- 

 Sloths, Megatherium, etc., and Armadillos, Glyi^todon, etc., repre- 

 sent the extinct forms. 



The name that has been applied to this group is inappropriate 



^ Pectoral and abdoiuiual in the Armadillo Tatusia. 

 VOL. X M 



