168 LÖNNBERG, SOME REMAINS OF NEOMYLODON LISTAI. 



sliows that it sometimes has been bis prey. But it does not 

 prove that it lives still in the present time. The skin which 

 has been flayed off and dried ean have been preserved for a 

 considerably long time, 1 when it was protected against rain 

 and moisture in the cave and moreover imbedded in the limy 

 matter which had fallen down from the roof of the cave. 

 How long time has elapsed since it was bronght there is im- 

 possible to say, but the fact that the outer loose bark of the 

 hair is almost entirely destroyed seems to indicate that it 

 was long ago. I am thus inclined to regard »Neomylodon» 

 as an extinct animal; although, if it really is so, it bas lived 

 up to a later time than its relatives and been contemporary 

 with man even later than at the time when the remains of 

 Megalotheriids and Glyptodonts were imbedded in the sand 

 dunes at Buenos Aires together with human bones. 2 



If this my opinion is right it is evident that it was not 

 a »Neomylodon» which Ramon Ltsta saw and shot at. But 

 even if »JSfeomylodon» should happen to be among the yet 

 existing animals, it does not seem probable that it was ident- 

 ical with Lista's unknown animal, although it has received 

 bis name. The whole of his description indicates something 

 quite different to »Neomylodon». According to Ameghino, 

 Lista regarded the animal he saw and shot at to be related 

 with, or perhaps be a pangolin (Manis) and said that it 

 agreed with »the Indian one, both in size and in general 

 aspect, except that in place of scales, it showed the body to 



reality have belouged to a now extinct race or species of Auchenia which 

 was larger than the now living huanaco or llama. It has also been mentioned 

 above that the hairballs found in the same cave contained a yellowish gray 

 wool and a reddish hair. The former resembles that of a huanaco a good 

 deal, the reddish hairs, again, are very much coarser and thicker than the 

 hairs of a huanaco and also different in structure, as the central pith is com- 

 paratively less developed. It is therefore perhaps not advisable to put thesc 

 hairs, wool and bones in connection with each other and constrnct an Auche- 

 nia of them, but anyway it seems as if the owner or owners of them had 

 belonged to other species than those now living in Patagonia and this again 

 seems to speak for a comparatively great age of the remains found in Cueva 

 Eberhardt, thus also of » Neomylodon» . 



1 But if it is of any considerable age, it must have been very well pro- 

 tected against moisture and bacteria because an investigation shows that the 

 skin, from a chemical point of view is so unchanged that by boiling pieces 

 of it glue ean be extracted, which proves that the collagen and gelatinons 

 substances are perfectly preserved. 



p. 143 



2 Lydekker. Die geogr. Verbreitung u. geol. Eutwickl. d. Säugethiere 



