SOME EXTINCT ARGENTINE MAMMALS 



IN the preceding article I brought under the notice of the 

 reader some of the leading peculiarities of the living and 

 extinct faunas of South America in general and of Argentina 

 in particular, while something was said as to the geological 

 features of the latter country. I now propose to take into 

 consideration the leading features of a few of the more 

 remarkable types of certain groups. As most of these animals 

 are known solely by their bones, it is, of course, impossible 

 to avoid the introduction of a certain amount of anatomical 

 details, although I have endeavoured to put these in as 

 popular a manner as possible. 



As mentioned in the last article, among all the fossil 

 animals of Argentina some of the most remarkable are the 

 extinct ungulates, or hoofed mammals, which, exclusive of 

 the horses, deer, guanacos, and mastodons, belong to groups 

 almost unknown in any other part of the world.* Before 

 going further, I must, however, remind my readers that 

 existing ungulates are divided into four groups or sub- 

 orders, distinguished from one another by the structure 

 of their feet. Of these the elephants, or proboscideans, are 

 specially characterised by having five toes to each foot, 

 and by the two rows of bones in the wrist and ankle 

 being arranged one above another in a linear manner ; 



* During the Pleistocene period a few ground-sloths and glyptodons 

 entered North America. 



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