334 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXVII, 



(]Manis), Tubulidenta (Ori/rtcropus), Loricata (Dasypodidfe, Glyptodonti- 

 d^e). 



1S83. Flower shows that the Megatheriidte are intermediate between 

 the Bradypodidse and the ^Nlyrmecophagidie and proposes the following 

 classification : 

 Order Edentata: 



Suborder Pilosa (Bradypodida^, INIegatheriidfe, Myrmecophagidj?). 



Suborder Loricata (Dasypodidse). 



Suborder Scjuamata (Manidse). 



Suborder Tubulitlentata (Orycteropodid;e). 



1SS4. Gill characterises the American Edentates as having Xenarthral 

 vertebrie in contrast with the Orycteropods and Manis which are Nomar- 

 thral. 



1887. Oldfield Thomas shows that in regard to the relations of the milk 

 and permanent dentitions the Edentata are different from all other Placentals, 

 and hence he proposes to set them apart as a group "Paratheria," coordinate 

 with the Eutheria of Huxley. 



1S91. Weber monograi)hs the genus Manis and proposes to give ordinal 

 rank to the groups Scjuamata (jNIanidre), Tubulidentata (Orycteropodichie) 

 and Xenarthra [American Edentates]. 



1903-1905. Scott monographs the Edentata of the Santa Cruz formation 

 (Miocene) of Patagonia. 



1904. Weber substitutes the term "Pholidota" for Squamata (pre- 

 occupied) and gives ordinal rank to each of the great groups. 



The Tubulidentata. 



Primitive characters. — As described by Weber (1904, pp. 414-419), 

 the South African Aard Vark {Orijcteropus capensis) is in many respects a 

 primitive Placental. The uterus is completely double (as in Rodents); 

 the testes lie in a cremaster sack which is still in open commvmication with 

 the body cavity ; the brain is of a very low ty})e with large olfactory parts and 

 small nearly smooth cerebra which leave the cerebellum quite uncovered; 

 the tail is very large at the base, i. e., imperfectly difl'crentiated from the 

 body. The arrangement of the muscles, according to Windle and Parsons 

 (1899), is very generalized. The skull and skeleton^ likewise retain many 

 primitive characters. The dentition'^ retains some evidence that the formula 

 was formerlv p|, m|; a milk dentition also was once functional and the 



1 Notes based chiefly on a skeleton in the U. S. National Museum and partly on Cuvier's 

 excellent figures in the Ossemens fossiles (tome 5, partie premiere, pi. xii). 

 -Fide Broom. 



