RELATIONSHIP OF ARMADILLO TO OTHER MAMMALS 225 



both among 'wild and domesticated mammals a number of self- 

 coloured varieties are indubitably related to either spotted or striped 

 congeners, we reach again a still broader conclusion that very pro- 

 bably all mammals, including the marsupials, have descended from 

 armour-plated ancestors. 



Having once surmised that the reticulations we see on the 



FIG. 83. (a) Rosette from lower part of right haunch of Giraffe ; (b] rosette from right 

 shoulder of the same (Natural History Museum); (c) rosette from upper part of fore-leg of 

 Zebu ; (d) rosette from shoulder of the same (see Fig. 58). 



dappled Horse's flank may be imprints of the commissures between 

 the plates which we see on the flank of Rhinoceros Sondaicus of 

 Fig. 79, something further is suggested. 



In Fig. 40 I have shown that the commissure-pictures coincide 

 with the network of superficial veins on the Horse's flank. Not 

 improbably these superficial veins are the ancestral commissure- 

 veins ; that is, a network of veins of a certain size located in the 



P 



