66 DR. V. SMITH WOODWARD ON REMAINS OF [Jan. 23, 



excavation, but exhibits fractures which were almost certainly 

 made when the animal was freshly killed. The cranial roof near 

 the occipital region is battered in four places, though the injuries 

 do not affect the brain-case itself ; while the right occipital condyle 

 is partly removed by a sharp, clean cut. There can, indeed, be no 

 doubt that the animal was killed and cut to pieces by man. 



This skull is evidently that of an adult animal, all the sutures 

 in the hinder region being closed. The inner wall of the temporal 

 fossa is much flattened, without any irregular convexities, but 

 marked with the characteristic reticulately-decussating, tine ridges 

 of bone, and studded with adherent patches of muscle-fibre. The 

 upper border of the fossa is a remarkably sharp edge, while the 

 narrow flattened cranial roof is only marked by a faint longi- 

 tudinal median furrow and by a diminutive tuft of fibre in a small 

 median pit near the occipital edge 1 . The fractures exhibit the 

 very large cancellated chambers surrounding the brain-case dorso- 

 lateral^ ; while a median longitudinal section (PI. V. fig. 1 b) 

 shows both these cells and others in the basisphenoid. The basi- 

 cranial axis is nearly straight, inclining a little upwards in front. 

 The anterior condyloid foramina (PI. V. fig. la,/.) piercing the 

 basioccipital are remarkably large, as usual ; the basisphenoid (b.s.) 

 is very long and narrow, flattened mesially on its lower face, but 

 with one slight median prominence near its hinder end ; the pre- 

 sphenoid (p.s.) forms a short acute rostrum, above which there 

 are remains of the vomer. The hinder ends of the pterygoids (pt.) 

 are shown to be inflated with large eancellae, but the sides of the 

 base of the skull are somewhat obscured by the dried soft parts. 

 The mastoid process of the periotic, with its articidar facette (m.) 

 for the stylohyal, seems to be rather smaller than in Mylodon. 

 The tympanic bone (t.) is preserved on the right side, though 

 wanting on the left. It is an irregular curved plate only slightly 

 bullate, but forming a complete floor to the tympanic cavity. Jls 

 usual in Edentata, it is not produced into an auditory meatus. 



The right maxilla (no. 4) is in precisely the same state of pre- 

 servation as the specimen just described, and probably belongs to 

 the same skull. It is shown of nearly one-half the natural size, 

 from the outer aspect, in the drawing (PI. V. fig. 2). Its anterior 

 margin is perfectly preserved, indicating that the facial region is 

 very short in front of the anterior end of the zygomatic itch, 

 which is pierced by a rather large suborbital canal. Its upper 

 border proves that the nasal region was raised into a slightly 

 convex dome ; while its antero- superior angle is not rounded as in 

 Mylodon, but curves upwards and forwards and ends in a point 

 as in Grypotherhim. At the oral border there are the shattered 

 bases of four teeth. 



The fragment of the nasal regiou (no. 13), shown of nearly one- 

 half the natural size, from the right lateral and anterior aspects, in 

 the drawing (PI. Y. figs. 3, 3 a), may also have belonged to the same 



1 See S. Roth, op. cit. pi. ii. fig. 1. 



