414 



ORDERS OF MAMMALIA. 



have the Scaly Ant-eaters or Pangolins ; and in Africa occurs 

 the Edentate genus Orycteropus. South America, however, is 

 the metropolis of the Edentata, the order being there repre- 

 sented by the Sloths, the Armadillos, and the true Ant-eaters. 

 It is also in South America that by far the greater number of 

 extinct Edentates have been found ; and, as in the case of the 

 Australian Marsupials, the fossil forms are gigantic in size 

 as compared with their living representatives. 



The oldest known representative of the Edentata is the 

 Macrotherium of the Miocene Tertiary of France. This is a 

 gigantic Edentate, intermediate in some respects between the 

 Pangolins (Manis) and the Aardwark (Orycteropus]. There 

 does not appear to have been any dermal armour, and the 

 teeth are rootless and destitute of enamel. The ungual pha- 

 langes are bent like those of the Pangolins, and the animal 

 doubtless possessed long curved claws. From the Upper 

 Miocene of Attica, M. Gaudry has also described a gigantic 

 Edentate, allied to Macrotherium, and larger than a Rhino- 

 ceros. The name assigned to this singular form is Ancylo- 

 therium Pentelici. 



In comparatively recent deposits in South America are 

 found remains of Edentates corresponding to the three groups 

 which now inhabit that continent viz., the Sloths, Armadillos, 

 and Hairy Ant-eaters. The Sloths (Bradypodidcz) are repre- 

 sented in the Post-tertiary deposits of South America by a 

 group of gigantic forms, the most important of which belong 

 to the genera Megatherium, Mylodon, and Megalonyx. 



Megatherium (fig. 343) was a colossal Sloth-like Edentate, 



Fig. 343. Megatherium Cnvien. Post-Pliocene, South America. 



