﻿^20 DR. J. MURIE ON THE THREE-BANDED ARMADILLO. 



nunterian Museum ; but as to the numbers of yertebrse in tlie said specimens I make 

 out tlie formula to be C. 1, D. H, L. 4, S. 12, C. 12 = 46. 



Baron Cuvier long ago enunciated of the neck of the Armadillos, " L'axis ne fait deja 

 qu'un avec la troisi^me dans de tres-jeunes sujets ; avec Tage la quatri^me s'y unit 

 egalement, et probablement dans les vieux oette anion va plus loin " (Oss. Poss. v. 131). 

 Giebel alludes to T. comrus as having 2nd, 3rd, and 4th soldered ; and such I found the 

 condition in my specimen. Both body and processes of 2nd and 3rd were completely 

 fused ; but whilst the body and lateral processes were adnate in the 4th, the neural arcli 

 to a certain extent was free. Owen's observations in other respects apply to the cervical 

 series of my different species. What he says further concerning the dorsal and lumbar 

 vertebra holds good, though I may add a few words by way of appendix to his and 



Giebel's descriptions, 



A notable feature in the spine of the Three-banded Armadillo is variation of angle 

 and curve ; these are partly of a permanent kind. The 1st to the 5th neck-vertebrae, 

 under ordinary circumstances, have a decidedly upward tilt. Those vertebrae hinging 

 upon 5th and 6th are freely movable upwards and downwards as a whole, 2nd, 3rd, and 

 4th being totally rigid between themselves. The 6th cervical has but little freedom, and 

 7th still less : the two form the promontory of an angle dividing the neck from the tho- 

 racic cavity. The bodies of the three foremost dorsal vertebrae are inclined almost 

 perpendicularly to the long axis of the spine ; and the succeeding dorsals continue on- 

 wards to the loins by a sweeping curve which is on a less or more horizontal plane. 

 Thence the pelvis forms a great arch, its hinder end nearly assuming the vertical, whicli 

 is completed by the armour-clad tail. The caudals, in contrast to the cervicals, flex 

 downwards and forwards. 



Among the extinct Uoplophoridse or Glyptodontes (notably the genus Panochthm of 

 Burmeister and Eoploplioms of Lund) there obtains a most unusual anchylosis of three 

 vertebrrD— to wit, the so-called " trivertebral bone " of Huxley. By him it is regarded as 

 a union of the 7th cervical and two foremost dorsals. Burmeister, on the other hand, 

 contended that it was three anterior dorsal vertebrae in union, although this authority in 

 his later memoirs seems to have modified his opinion in favour of the former view. It is 

 highly interesting, then, to find in Tolypeutes an approach to the unique condition 

 exliibitcd by those old armour-plated giants in this particular, furthermore to trace in 

 the living three-banded Armadillo evidence of two other peculiarities of the fossil forms, 

 viz. a partial ginglymoid jointing in the lumbar region, and a synovial articulation 

 betwixt manubrium and first mesosternal piece. The condition of the parts certainly 

 v? not precisely Hke that of the fossil genera ; stiU one may assume that what obtains is a 

 first stage of anomaly.. Perchance it may help to explain difficulties as regards trunk- 



flexion m the extinct^solid cuirassed forms, or at least strengthen the clue to affinities 

 and habits. ° 





the h,« o.ad.1 vcrtobrr. and continue after the ante™, 

 H««pophr,c. .„, articulated to the interspace, between 



