CHAPTER XIV 



Edentata 



The scarcity of edentates in the Deseado beds is in 

 striking contrast to their abundance in the Santa Cruz 

 formation. Whereas in this latter horizon over half of the 

 finds are edentates, in the Deseado only eight per cent, of 

 the total collection belong to this group, and this is doubt- 

 less a larger proportion than these animals represented in 

 the fauna; for the hundreds of small plates in a carapace, 

 when scattered greatly, increase the chance that some part 

 of an individual will be found, and most of the eight per 

 cent, of finds are single plates. Most of the plates found 

 represent armadilloes, our collection containing but one 

 plate of a glyptodont, and no gravigrades. Ameghino's 

 collections present about the same relations, but in the 

 repeated trips he found a few more traces of glyptodons 

 and a very few gravigrades. 



This scarcity of edentates can not be taken to mean that 

 they were not developed, for they are a peculiarly South 

 American group, and as they were developing somewhere 

 into their great complexity', I take it to mean that the 

 climatic conditions were unfavorable in this particular 

 section. 



As noted above, all previous finds have been isolated 

 plates. We were fortunate enough to find one specimen 

 consisting of a carapace with ten rows of movable plates 

 in place, and parts of four rows of the pelvic buckler to- 

 gether with over fifty isolated plates. A second specimen 

 had some fifty associated plates which were mostly from 

 the pelvic buckler. 



Dasypoda 



The representatives of this group are so poorly known 

 in the Deseado beds that Ameghino has, in general, used 



