EDENTATA. 219 



it, that two out of tliree species of the Oryctekopvs occur on the west coast of South Africa opposite 

 where the Ant-eaters occur in South America. No doubt another species occurs in South Nubia, 

 and no doubt, also, the Manis is found in Senegal and "West Africa too, and it has scarcely less 

 affinity to the Ant-eaters than the Orycteropus, there^fore the circumstance is not worth much. 



One most interesting fact bearing upon this point is that the remains of an extiiict Edentate 

 animal (named Macrothertum giganteum) have been found in the Old World (from Miocene 

 beds at Sansans, in the south of France, and at Linz), and although they are very imperfect, 

 sufficient has been made out, first, to lead Cuvier to class them with the Pangolin ; and now, when 

 additional, though still most meagre materials have been obtained, to cause Gervais to suppose 

 them most akin to Orycteropus ; lastly, to enable Professor Owen to say with confidence that 

 they belonged to a gigantic genvis intermediate between the ]\Iaxis and Orycteropus.* It is right 

 to add, however, that this determination is not that of all Pahrontologists. Dr. Giebel fliKls no 

 resemblance in the remains to those of Orycteropus. He thinks them much closer to the smaller 

 Armadillos. The determination of this point has much interest. If the animal was a Pangolin, 

 it shows that the only Edentate fossils in the Old World belong to the same type as stUl continues 

 to inhabit it ; while, on the other hand, if more nearly allied to the Armadillo, it furnishes another 

 instance in addition to that of eocene opossums, from the Paris gyjisum, of a fonn supposed to 

 be peculiar to South America, having at that time also lived in Europe. Professor Owen regards 

 its Old-world relations (between Manis and Orycterop)us) as deeply interesting, on account of 

 the geographical position of both these Edentate genera, viz. on tracts of land, which are now most 

 contiguous to the continent containing the remains of the extinct osculant genus ; but although 

 most contiguous now, we must remember that at the time when the Macrotherium lived, ^Vfrica 

 was wholly disarticidated from Europe, and India probably from Asia ; the communication between 

 the country to the north and that to the south of the line of the Himmalayan range and its ex- 

 tensions, being apparently difficult or wholly interrupted. In fact, there appears then to have been 

 freer communication between the New World and the Old, than between the Africano-Indian 

 region and Europe. 



In the classifications of the Edentata, all systematists agree that there are at least two sections 

 which, for distinction, might, after the plan of division of vertebrata and invertebrata, be called the 

 Ant-eaters and the non- Ant- eaters. This was Cuvier's di^asion. It is now Van der Hoeven's. Owen, 

 on the other hand, increases the .subdivisions to three, — the Bradytodid.^ or Sloths, the DASYPoniD,E 

 or Armadillos, and the Edextata or Ant-eaters. Giebel again divides them into four families, — the 

 Ant-eaters or Vermilixguia, the Armadillos or' Fodientia, the extinct Megatheroid animals or 

 Gravigrada, and the Sloths or Tardigrada. In forming an opinion as to the relative merits of 

 these views, there is one general principle, which will prove a safe guide. Where two structures 

 characteristic of different sections are found in the same animal, the value of each should be estimated 

 by its relative importance. Is the land of food an animal feeds upon, or the mode in which it 

 procures it, of most importance ? The fact of Mammals being universally divided into the great 

 sections of carnivorous, herbivorous, and insectivorous, almost answers this question. If the modi- 

 fications of structure dependent on the kind of food consumed are found to furnish the best 

 characters for the great groups, while what I call accidental structure is used oidy for small 

 ones, it sufficiently shows the general estimate of their relative imiwrtance. Now, in the Edentata 



* Owen's " Palaeontology," p. 348. 



