Revleivs — Extinct Ground-sloth in Patagonia. 227 



covered with coarse, hard, and stiff hair. He noticed that the 

 small ossicles formed a dense armour in the lower layer of the 

 skin below the hair. He concluded that the skin belonged to 

 a mysterious quadruped which had been described to him some 

 years before by the late Eamon Lista. He therefore named the 

 animal Neomylodon Listai. 



In January last Dr. F. P. Moreno, Director of the La Plata 

 Museum, arrived in England with a remarkable piece of skin, 

 about half a metre square, which he believed to be the identical 

 specimen of which Dr. Ameghino had obtained some fragments. 

 He exhibited the specimen to the Zoological Society on January 17th, 

 expressing his opinion that it belonged to the extinct Mylodon. 

 He further contributed a paper on this interesting discovery to the 

 same Society on February 21st, while Mr. A. Smith Woodward added 

 a detailed description and discussion of the specimen. 



It appears that the piece of skin in question was observed by 

 Dr. Moreno early last year hanging in a tree at a farm near 

 Consuelo Cove, Last Hope Inlet, in Southern Patagonia. On 

 making inquiries he found that the specimen had been dug up 

 about two years previously from the floor of a cavern, at a height 

 of, approxinaately, 200 metres above the sea. Dr. Moreno undertook 

 further excavations at the spot, unfortunately without success ; 

 and then he forwarded the specimen by Government transport 

 to the La Plata Museum to await his return. 



At the meeting on January 17th much incredulity was expressed 

 as to the antiquity of the specimen claimed for it by Dr. Moreno. 

 In his completed paper, on Februar}' 2l8t, he therefore supported 

 his contention by mentioning that he had found a well-preserved 

 mummified human body in another cavei'n in the same district, and 

 this certainly belonged to an extinct race of great antiquity, unknown 

 even to the present Tehuelche Indians. Although the skin had 

 a very fresh appearance and had evidently been stripped off the 

 carcass by man, there was thus no difficulty in believing that it 

 really dated back to the time of a fauna which no longer survived. 



Mr. Woodward began his description of the specimen by 

 remarking upon its freshness, and pointed to the abundant coating 

 of dried serum on the old cut edges. If Dr. Moreno had not been 

 able to give so circumstantial an account of the discovery, he would, 

 indeed, have unhesitatingly pronounced the skin to belong to 

 a Recent animal killed quite lately. At one corner of the 

 specimen he thought he could recognize the base of the left ear, 

 and thus concluded that the piece of skin probably belonged to 

 the neck. In this case it would be quite large enough for 

 Mylodon ; but he noticed some slight differences in the minute 

 structure of the dermal ossicles, which might imply that the 

 specimen belonged to a distinct genus. Indeed, the piece of skin 

 was observed to differ from the known dermal armour of Mylodon, 

 and that of all other Edentata, in having the ossicles confined to 

 the lower half of the dermis, while the covering of hair was 

 implanted in every part of the upper half. The stiff' hair most 



