46 



EDENTATA. 



Echinodermatam, 4to. Lips. 1778. Linlriits, De 

 stellis marinis, fol. Lips. 1733. Blainville, Diet, 

 des Sc. Nat. art. Oursin. Tiedemann, Anatomie 

 der Robrenholothurie, &c. Heidelberg, 1820. Eh- 

 renberg, in Meckel's Archiv fur Anat. &c. 1834. 

 Delle Chiaje, Memorie sulla storia degli animali 

 senza vertebre del regno di Napoli. 



(W. Sharpey.) 



EDENTATA. A group of mammiferous 

 animals, exhibiting no very distinct general 

 characters to indicate any close mutual affinities 

 between them, but agreeing in the unimport- 

 ant character of the absence of incisive teeth 

 and the possession of long claws. They may 

 indeed be considered as consisting of two very 

 distinct groups ; the one exclusively vegetable 

 feeders, the other generally insectivorous in 

 their habits. To the first belong the Sloths 

 (Bradypus), (Jig. 24), constituting the Tar- 

 digrada of Illiger ; to the second, the Ant- 

 eaters (Myrmecophaga), (fig. 25), the Arma- 



dillos (Dasypus), (fg. 26), the Pangolin (Ma- 

 nis) (jig- 27), with their congeners, and the re- 

 cently discovered American fossorial animal, the 

 Chlamyphorus, forming the Edentata proper. 

 The enormous extinct animal, the Megathe- 

 rium (fig-. 28), may be considered as an addi- 

 tional form, and a very interesting and impor- 

 tant one, as it certainly exhibits some charac- 

 ters which appear to connect the Tardigrada 

 and the true Edentata. The organization of 

 these forms is so different as to require a se- 

 parate description. The Ornithorynchus and 

 the Echidna are necessarily excluded from the 

 Edentata, with which they had been united 

 by Cuvier and others, and form the group 

 called Monotremata by Geoffroy. 



In the Sloths, the whole structure is evidently 

 formed to enable them to pass their life in 

 trees, amongst the branches of which they con- 

 stantly reside, hanging with the back down- 

 wards and creeping slowly along in this remark- 

 able position, embracing the bough, and 



Fig. 24. 



Skeleton of tlie Sloth. 

 Fig. 25. 



Skeleton of the Ant-eater. 



