1899.] NEOMYLODON LISTAI FROM PATAGONIA. 155 



occurrence of a human mummy of an extinct race in another 

 cavern in the same district. The presence of an abuudant 

 C3vering oE dried serum on one cut border of the skin is alone 

 suggestive of grave doubts as to the antiquity of the specimen ; 

 but Dr. Vaughan Harley tells me that similar dried serum has 

 been observed several times among the remains of the Egyptian 

 mummies, and there seems thus to be no limit to the length of 

 time for which it can be preserved, provided it is removed from, 

 all contact with moisture. I may add that I have searched in 

 vain in the v^^'itings of Ramon Lista (so far as they are represented 

 in the Library of the Eoyal Geographical Society) for some reference 

 to the statement which the late traveller made verbally to 

 Dr, Ameghino ; and as the piece of skin now described certainly 

 represents an animal almost gigantic in size compared with the 

 Old- World Paugolin, I fear it cannot be claimed to belong to 

 Lista's problematical quadruped, whatever that may prove to be. 



The final result of these brief considerations is therefore rather 

 disappointing. There are difficulties in either of the two possible 

 hypotheses. We have a piece of skin quite large enough to have 

 belonged to the extinct Mylodon ; but unfortunately it cannot be 

 directly compared with the dermal armour of that genus, because 

 it seems to belong to the neck-region, while the only dermal 

 tubercles of a Mj^Jodont hitherto definitely made known are 

 referable to the lumbar region. If it does belong to Mylodon, as 

 Dr. Moreno maintains, it implies either that this genus survived 

 in Patagonia to a comparatively recent date, or that the circum- 

 stances of preservation were unique in the cavern where the 

 specimen was discovered. On the other hand, if it belongs to a 

 distinct and existing genus, as Dr. Ameghino maintains — and as 

 most of the characters of the specimen itself would at first sight 

 suggest — it is indeed strange that so large and remarkable a 

 quadruped should have hitherto escaped detection in a country 

 which has been so frequently visited by scientific explorers. 



[P.S.— At the reading of this paper Prof. Eay Lankester re- 

 marked that he should regard the characters of the hair as specially 

 important, and would not be surprised if the problematical piece 

 of skin proved to belong to an unknown type of Armadillo. This 

 possibility had occurred to me, but I had hesitated to mention it 

 on account of the considerable discrepancy observable between the 

 arrangement of the bony armour in Neomylodon and that in the 

 known Glyptodonts and the unique Brazilian Armadillo (Sclero- 

 pleura), which happen to exhibit an incompletely developed 

 (incipient or vestigial) shield. In each of the latter cases, the 

 armour is not subdivided into a compact mass of irregular ossicles, 

 but consists of well-separated elements which could only become 

 continuous by the addition of a considerable extent of bone 

 round their margins, or by the special development of smaller 

 intervening ossicles. 



Since the paper was read, I have had the privilege of studying 

 Dr. Einar Lonnberg's valuable description of the pieces of the 



