ANT-BEAR 465 



teeth (premolars and molars) was greater than in any other known 

 existing mammal with teeth differentiated into distinct series, there 

 being no less than ten pairs of these teeth. This, of course, has a most 

 important bearing on the systematic position and ancestry of the 

 animal, although at present it is not easy to come to any definite 

 conclusion on these points. Usually it is placed, together with the 

 Old World scaly ant-eaters, or pangolins, in the same order (Edentata) 

 as the sloths and ant-eaters of tropical America ; but such an association 

 is extremely doubtful, and it has been suggested that the ant-bear is 

 an early side-branch of the stock which gave rise to the modern hoofed, 

 or ungulate, mammals. 



Be this as it may, the ant-bear is a creature altogether sui generis, 

 which at the present day is the sole representative of the family 

 OrycteropodidiE. The species has, however, been split up into a 



Fig. 95. — Skin of Ant-Bear. 



number of local races,^ namely, the typical Cape ant-bear, from Cape 

 Colony and Natal, the East African race {Orycteropus afer wertheri) 

 from the hinterland of Bagamoyo, the Abyssinian race ((9. a. cEtJiiopicus) 

 from Abyssinia and the Sudan, the Senegambian race (6^. a. senegalensis), 

 the Hausa race {O. a. Jiausanus) from the Togo hinterland, the south- 

 western race (6^. a. albicaiidus) from German South-west Africa, the 

 North Congo race {O. a. erikssoni), and the Cameroons race {O. a. 

 leptodon). 



In the first five of these the general colour is greyish and the tail 

 long ; but the sixth is conspicuous on account of its brown colouring, 

 and relatively short white tail. 



In distinguishing these races Mr. Rothschild has made use of the 

 number of the teeth, but this appears to be a feature of no importance ; 

 the number of pairs in the upper jaw ranging from five to six and in 

 the lower jaw from four to six, entirely independent of race. The colour 



^ See Rothschild, Novitates Zoologidr, vol. xix. p. 506, 1907; Lonnberg, Arkiv fiir Zoologi, 

 vol. iii. No. 3, 1906 ; and Hirst, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 7, vol. xvii. p. 383, 1906. 



2 H 



