226 EDEXTATES. 



number on each side of the jaws), which were divided into three prisms by a pair 

 of deep vertical grooves on each side. In all of them the carapace consists of a 

 single solid shield, formed of a number of polygonal bony plates, which are 

 firmly united together by suture. A peculiar form from Brazil known as the 

 chlamydothere serves in some respects to connect the glyptodonts with the arma- 

 dillos, having the carapace of the latter, and the teeth approximating to those of 

 the former. The typical species was about the size of a rhinoceros ; but others 

 were smaller. 



In all the glyptodonts the skull was short, the feet were short and massive, 

 generally with five toes in front and four behind ; and the limbs were likewise 

 short and massive. In the larger forms the bony plates of the carapace were fully 



an inch in thickness : and in all the species the head 

 was protected by a bony shield, somewhat similar in 

 structure to the carapace. In the larger types, constitut- 

 ing the genus Glyptodon, the carapace was much vaulted, 

 and its margins ornamented with a number of large 

 projecting tubercles ; while the tail was protected by a 

 series of bony rings, also ornamented with bosses, 

 gradually diminishing in size from root to tip. In one 

 species the total length, along the curve of the back, 

 from the nose to the end of the tail was 1H feet, while 



END OF SHEATH OF TAIL OF A , , , _ „ , . , ,, ." . . ,,, 



glyfiodont, much REDUCED. the carapace measured i feet in length and 9 in width, 



inclusive of the curves. On the other hand, in the 

 mostly smaller forms known as Lomaphorv.x, the carapace was less vaulted, and 

 devoid of bosses on the margin; while the tail had several movable smooth rings 

 at the root, and terminated in a long bony tube of more than a yard in length. 

 The extremity of such a tube, showing the large bony plates with which its 

 surface is covered, is shown in the accompanying cut. 



Another gigantic kind from the pampas, distinguished by the tail terminating 

 in a huge flattened club, armed during life with horns, is known as Dtfdicurus. 

 In the Miocene beds of Patagonia all the glyptodonts were of smaller size. 



The Pangolins. 



Family MaxiL-E. 



Stranger even than the armadillos are the Edentates commonly known as 

 pangolins, or scaly ant-eaters, which may be compared in appearance to an animated 

 spruce-fir cone furnished with a head and legs. These creatures constitute a family 

 by themselves, in which there is but a single genus — Man is, and, like the remaining 

 representatives of the order, they are confined to the Old World. As already 

 mentioned, the relationship of the pangolins to the typical New World Edentates, 

 is remote ; and it may be even questioned whether the group is rightly included 

 in the same order. Their internal anatomy is of a different type ; and the joints 

 of the backbone lack the additional articular processes characterising most of the 

 American Edentates. 



