(H DR. A. SMITH WOODWARD OX REMAINS OF [JaU. 23, 



2. On some Remains of Grypotherium (Neom>//odon) listai 

 and associated Mammals from a Cavern near Consuelo 

 Cove, Last Hope Inlet, Patagonia. By A. Smith 

 Woodward, LL.D., F.Z.S. 



[Received January 23, 1900.] 

 (Plates V.-IX.) 



Last February, when presenting to this Society an account of 

 the skin of a Ground-Sloth discovered in a cavern in Southern 

 Patagonia, Dr. Moreno mentioned that further excavations were 

 being made in the hope of finding other remains of the same 

 animal (P. Z. S. 1899, p. 148). The task referred to was under- 

 taken by Dr. Rudolph Hauthal, geologist of the La Plata Museum, 

 who met with complete success l . He not only found another 

 piece of skin, but also various brokeu bones of more than one 

 individual of a large species of Ground-Sloth in a remarkably fresh 

 state of preservation. Moreover, he discovered teeth of an extinct 

 horse aud portions of limb-bones of a large feline carnivore, in 

 association with these remains ; he likewise met with traces of fire, 

 which clearly occurred in the same deposits as the so-called 

 Neomylodon. All these remains were found beneath the dry earth 

 on the floor of an enormous chamber which seemed to have been 

 artificially enclosed by rude walls. In one spot they were scattered 

 through a thick deposit of excrement of some gigantic herbivore, 

 evidently the Ground-Sloth itself ; in another spot they were 

 associated with an extensive accumulation of cut hay. Dr. Hauthal 

 and his colleagues, indeed, concluded that the cavern was an old 

 corral in which the Ground-Sloths had been kept and fed by man. / 



As the result of these explorations, Dr. Moreno has now the 

 gratification of exhibiting to the Society complete proof that the 

 piece of skin described on the former occasion belongs to a genuine 

 Pampean Ground-Sloth, not Mylodon itself, but a \ery closely 

 related genus Grypotherium, of which skulls are already known 

 from Pampean deposits in the Province of Buenos Ayres 2 . The 

 collection which we now have the privilege of examining distinctly 

 supports his contention that the large quadruped in question 

 belongs to an extinct fauna, though contemporary with man. The 



1 R. Hauthal, S. Roth, and R. Lelmianu-Nitsche, " El Mamifero Misterioso 

 de la Patagonia, Grypotherium domes ticum," Revisra Mus. La Plata, vol. ix. 

 pp. 409-474, pis. i.-v. (1899). — P. P. Moreno, "Note on tlie Discovery of 

 Miolania and of Glossotheriti/m (Neomylodori) in Patagonia," Geol. Mag." [4] 

 vol. vi. pp. 385-388 (1899). 



2 J. Reinhardt, " Beskrivelse af Huvedskallen af el Ktempedovondyr, Grypo- 

 therium darwinii, fra La Plala-Landenes plejstoeene Dannelser," K. Dnnsk. 

 Vidensk. Selsk. Skr. [5] vol. xii. (1879), pp. 353-380, pis i.. ii.— H. Burmeister, 

 'Atlas de la Description physique de la Republique Argentine,' sect. ii. (1881 ), 

 p. 119, woodc. (Mylodon darwinii). — R. Lydekker, "The Extinct Edentates ot' 

 Argentina," Anales Mus. La Plata — Paleont. Argentina, vol. lii. pi. 2 (1894), 

 p. 85, pi. liv. 



