376 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



The piece of skin on which the accounts of the animal are 

 based was so fresh that the hair and serum on it, though 

 dried, were still intact. The hair was 4 or 5 cm. long, reddish 

 tinged with gray, while in a large portion of the fragment were 

 numerous small oblong or rounded dermal ossicles. The skin 

 was discovered in a large cavern, where at a shortly subsequent 

 date further investigations were made by Hauthal, geologist 

 of the La Plata Museum. Here he found not only "another 

 piece of skin, but also various broken bones of more than one 

 individual of a large species of ground-sloth in a remarkably 

 fresh state of preservation. Moreover, he discovered teeth of 

 an extinct horse and portions of limb bones of a large feline 

 carnivore, in association with these remains; he likewise met 

 with traces of fire, which clearly occurred in the same deposits 

 as the so-called Neomylodon. All these remains were found 

 beneath the dry earth on the floor of an enormous chamber, 

 which seemed to have been artificially enclosed by rude walls. 

 In one spot they were scattered through a thick deposit of 

 excrement of some gigantic herbivore, evidently the ground- 

 sloth itself; in another spot they were associated with an ex- 

 tensive accumulation of cut hay. Dr. Hauthal and his col- 

 leagues, indeed, concluded that the cavern was an old corral in 

 which the ground-sloths had been kept and fed by man" 

 (Woodward, 1900). 



Remains of at least three individuals were found in this cave. 

 So fresh were these that bits of dried tissue still adhered to 

 some of the bones, and one of the skulls showed evidence of 

 having been cut away at the occiput by an instrument. In the 

 lower jaw there were four cheek teeth without any evidence of 

 a caniniform tooth in front of them. The upper jaw likewise 

 had four cheek teeth, thus fixing the identity as Grypotherium 

 instead of Mylodon, in which there are five, as also in 

 other large ground sloths. Of particular interest are the 

 masses of excrement, which have been determined to consist of 

 grasses largely. A few pieces of stems appear sharply cut and 

 suggest that, like the quantity of cut hay found in association 

 with the remains, these had been fed to the animals by their 

 human captors. Complete measurements are not available, 

 but these ground sloths were doubtless as large as a cow, 

 though differently and heavily proportioned. 



