CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 8. EDENTATA. 



477 



imperishable monuments of the consummate skill with which they were constructed. Each limb 

 and fragment of a limb formed co-ordinate parts of a well-adjusted and perfect whole, and 

 through all their deviations from the form and proportion of the limbs of other quadrupeds, 

 afforded fresh proofs of the infinitely varied and inexhaustible contrivances of creative wisdom." 



But this animal, which must have greatly exceeded the elephant in size and weight, was not 

 the only geological wonder of this part of the world. The bones of an extinct animal, called b\ 

 geologists the Mylodon, and nearly the size of a hippopotamus, have been discovered at various 

 times in South America, and a complete skeleton has been obtained and placed in the Hunterian 

 Museum of London. This is eleven feet long from the snout to the end of the tail. It has been 

 proved that this creature fed on vegetables, and probably pulled down trees of considerable size 

 and fed on the leaves and branches. It seems to have combined something of the organization of 

 both the sloth and the armadillo, but in some respects it was unlike any known animal. It is 

 probable that there were several species of Mylodon. 



Another geological curiosity, belonging to the Edentata of this quarter of the world, was the 

 Glyptodon, a species of gigantic armadillo, the remains of which have been found in various 

 places. The entire length of one of these creatures was probably fourteen feet. The carapace of 



SKELETON OF THE MTLODON'. 



one of them is preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, and appears 

 like part of a huge cask. This covering is composed of horny plates, not disposed in rings or 

 bands, as in the armadillo, but articulated together, and forming a tesselated cylinder or arch. 

 •The tail was inclosed in a scabbard of this nature. These are some of the revelations ot geology 



