CHAPTER VIII 
EDENTATA——GANODONTA 
Order II. EDENTATA 
TERRESTRIAL, 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 Trichechus. My. 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, v.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—which will be treated of 
presently—he 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 Orycteropus, among living forms. The great Ground- 
Sloths, Megatherium, etc., and Armadillos, Glyptodon, etc., repre- 
sent the extinct forms. 
The name that has been applied to this group is inappropriate 
' Pectoral and abdominal in the Armadillo Tatusia. 
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