1 92 



EDENTATA 



burrow underground like the Armadillos. Though generally an 

 inoffensive animal, when attacked it can defend itself vigorously and 

 effectively with its sabre-like anterior claws. The female bears but 

 a single young at a birth. 



The union of the pterygoids in the middle line to prolong the 

 narial passage is a character found elsewhere among existing mam- 

 mals only in the next genus, in one Armadillo (Tatusia), and in 

 certain Cetacea. The contrast in length between the skull of the 

 Great Anteater and that of the Sloth is, as Professor Parker observes, 

 very marked indeed ; the one being relatively the longest and the 



FIG. 64. The Great Anteater (Myrmecophagajubata). (From Sclater, List of Animals in 

 Zoological Society's Gardens, 1883, p. 190.) 



other almost the shortest in the whole class. The small size and 

 incomplete development of the jugal bone in the zygomatic arch 

 affords another striking contrast to the Sloths (Fig. 59). 



Tamandua. 1 This genus closely resembles the last in anatomical 

 structure, but the head is much less elongated, the fur is short and 

 bristly, the tail tapering, prehensile, with the under side through- 

 out and the whole of the terminal portion naked and scaly. The 

 stomach is similar to that of Myrmecophaga, but Avith the muscular 

 pyloric gizzard not quite so strongly developed. There is a distinct 

 ileo-colic valve and a short globular caecum. The fore foot has a very 

 large claw on the third toe, moderate-sized claws on the second and 



1 Gray, Aniials of Philosophy, new series, vol. x. p. 343 (1825). 



