EDENTATA. 305 



II. PLACENTALIA. 



I. Adeciduata. 

 Order 3. EDENTATA* (BRUTA). 



Afammals with incomplete dentition, usually witli numerous grinders 

 without roots, and scratching or curved claws on the extremities. 



This group which includes but few genera is characterised by the 

 relatively low grade of development of all the systems of organs and 

 especially by the incomplete dentition, teeth being in exceptional 

 cases altogether wanting. Except in the case of a single Dasypod 

 the incisors are always absent (fig. 686). When canine teeth are 

 present they are small, blunt, and conical. The grinders also are 

 weak and of simple structure, being without roots and enamel. 

 Many (Vermilinguia and Dasypoda) are insectivorous, others (Brady- 

 poda) phytophagous. They are all 

 sluggish, stupid animals, with small 

 brain without convolutions; they 

 climb or dig holes, and at the 

 present time only inhabit the 

 southern zones. Except the 

 African Orycteropus and the genus 

 Mam's, which lives in Africa and 

 Asia, they are all confined to South 



America Fl0< 685 - Skull of Bradypus torquatiis. 



Fam. Vermilinguia (Ant-eaters). With very elongated, pointed snout, narrow 

 mouth, from which the thin, vermiform tongue can be protruded to a great 

 distance. The jaws are weak. Teeth are altogether absent, except in Orycte- 

 ropus, which possesses numerous grinders formed of longitudinal hollow fibres 

 and scarcely of the hardness of bone. The legs are short, strong, and adapted 

 for digging ; they are used for scraping up the nests of Ants and Termites. They 

 extend their long viscous tongue into the ant-heaps thus broken into ; the 

 insects bite firmly hold of it, and by the rapid retraction of the tongue become 

 the prey of the Ant-eater. Myrmeeophaga jubata L. ; M. tetradactyla L., 

 (tamandua Desm.), didactyla L., South America. Manis, Pangolin ; M. mac- 

 . rura Erxl., West coast of Africa; M. ~bracliyura Erxl. and javanica Desm., 

 both found in the East Indies. Orycteropus capensis Geoffr., Aardvark of 

 South Africa. 



Fam. Dasypoda (Armadillos). The body is covered with bony plates which 



* Th. Bell, Article " Edentata," in Todd's " Cyclopedia of Anatomy," vol. ii. 

 1836. 



W. v. Rapp, " Anatomische Untersuchungen liber die Edentaten," Tubingen 

 1852. 



VOL. ii. 20 



