VERTEBRATA: MAMMALIA. 



673 



Ant-eaters, the Armadillos, and the Sloths, are entirely confined 

 to South America, in which country a group of gigantic extinct 

 Edentates existed in Post-tertiary times. The Scaly Ant-eater 

 or Manis is common to Asia and Africa, and the genus Oryc- 

 teropus is peculiar to Africa. 



The family Bradypodida (or Tardigradd] comprises some 

 exceedingly curious animals, which are exclusively confined to 

 South America, inhabiting the vast primeval forests of that 

 continent. The Sloths have a remarkably short and rounded 

 face, and the body is covered with hair. The mammae are 

 two in number and pectoral in position ; and the tail is short 

 or quite rudimentary. The incisor teeth are altogether want- 

 ing (fig. 372, A), but there is always a small number of simple 



Fig. 372--A, Side 



-view of the skull of Bradypus c^^cull^ger; 

 of Dasypus gigas. (After Giebel. ) 



B, Side-view of the skull 



molars, and in the Two-toed Sloths or Unaus the first tooth in 

 each jaw on each side is so much larger than the others, and 

 so much more pointed, that it has been regarded as a canine. 

 The malar bone is not directly articulated with the temporal 

 bone, and it sends backwards two long processes, directed re- 

 spectively upwards and downwards (fig. 372, A). The stomach 

 is complex, somewhat resembling that of the Ruminants. The 

 cervical vertebrae are more than the normal seven in number in 

 the Three-toed Sloth, and less than the normal in one of the two- 

 toed species; and the long bones have no medullary cavities. 



2 U 



