98 THE NEOG/EIC REALM. [CHAP. 



ornamented with a distinct rosette-like sculpture. The allied 

 genus Plohophorus, of which the remains occur alike in the 

 Brazilian caves and the Catamarca and Monte Hermoso beds of 

 Argentina, while agreeing with the last in the characters of the 

 skull, has a carapace more like that of the undermentioned 

 Panochthus, and a tail-sheath resembling that of the next genus. 

 In addition to well-marked distinctive features of the skull, Loma- 

 phorus is characterised by the great elongation and slender form 

 of the carapace, which is produced on either side of the neck in 

 the same manner as in the armadillos, while its margins lack the 

 large bosses exhibited by the typical genus. The tail-sheath 

 consists of a small number of rings at the base, followed by a 

 long terminal tube ornamented with smooth, oval, bony plates, 

 of which those along the sides and at the tip are larger than the 

 rest. The genus, of which the species are much inferior in point 

 of size to those of Glyptodon, has the same geological range as 

 Plohophorus. 



Another type of the family is represented by the animals 

 constituting the genus Panochthus, in which the hexagonal bony 

 plates of the carapace are arranged in more distinct rows on the 

 sides of the body ; those of the back being ornamented either 

 with a number of small granular tubercles (as in the species here 

 figured), or with one circular central disc surrounded with several 

 rows of much smaller discs. A more striking difference is dis- 

 played in the structure of the sheath of the tail, which consists at 

 the base of six or seven large smooth rings diminishing very 

 rapidly in diameter, and terminates in a long and massive de- 

 pressed tube, the sides of which are ornamented with large 

 roughened bosses, probably surmounted during life with horny 

 knobs, while the intervening spaces are covered with small bony 

 ossicles. The species are of very large or medium size, and range 

 from the Pampean to the Monte Hermoso beds in Argentina, 

 while some occur in the Brazilian caves. Still more extraordinary 

 is the gigantic Dadicurus of the Pampean, represented by a some- 

 what smaller form from the Monte Hermoso beds. Having a 

 total length in a straight line of close upon twelve feet, five of 

 which are taken up by the ponderous tail, the Pampean repre- 

 sentative of this genus has the outer surface of the plates of the 



