96 Mr. Owen on the Glyptodon clavipes.. 



existing Armadillos, and the generality of quadrupeds. It might be conjectured, 

 that the Megatherium, since its hind-foot is well known to be very apocryphally 

 restored in the Madrid skeleton, may approximate in some degree in this part of 

 its skeleton to the Glyptodon, especially if the hypothesis be admitted that the 

 Megathere was in like manner laden with a ponderous coat of armour. But the 

 structure of the terminal phalanges of the Megathere at all events differs most 

 widely from that which we have just described in the Glyptodon : the compressed 

 lengthened shape is as extreme in the claw-bones of the one, as the depressed 

 shortened figure is in those of the other extinct quadruped. In the Glyptodon 

 the foot appears to be expressly modified to form the base of a column destined 

 to support an enormous superincumbent weight : in the Megatherium, one would 

 infer that the bulky body had not been clad in an expanded bony coat of mail, 

 from the very circumstance that the toes were developed to sustain and wield 

 long and compressed claws, such as form the compensating weapons of defence of 

 the hair-clad Sloths and Anteaters. The unguial phalanges of the mailed 

 Armadillos, in their shorter, broader, and flatter form, make a much nearer ap- 

 proach to those of the Glyptodon. We may readily admit, indeed, that the hind- 

 foot of the Glyptodon is an extreme modification of the same general plan of struc- 

 ture as that on which the foot of the Armadillo is constructed ; but if we were led 

 to conclude that the differences in the tarsal bones exceeded those which were 

 traceable in the same bones between one species of Armadillo and another, a for 

 tiori we must admit that the antero-posterior compression of the metatarsals 

 and phalanges, and the total suppression in these of the ginglymoid trochlear arti- 

 culations in the Glyptodon, are indicative of a difference of general habits much 

 greater than is usually observed in species of the same genus. 



The dental modifications already described are conformable with, and in fact 

 lead irresistibly to, the same opinion respecting the nature and affinities of the 

 Glyptodon, as that to which we have been conducted by an examination and com- 

 parison of the locomotive organs : and it may be concluded, therefore, that the 

 extinct edentate animal, to which belongs the fossil tesselated osseous armour 

 described by Weiss, Buckland and Clift, cannot be called an Armadillo, without 

 making use of an exaggerated expression, and still less a species of Megatherium; 

 but that it offers the type of a distinct genus, which was much more nearly 

 alUed to the Dasypodoid than to the Megatherioid families of Edentata, and, most 

 probably, connected that order of quadrupeds with the heavy-coated Rhinoceroses 

 of the Pachydermatous group. 



The question which may next arise, is, whether the tesselated armour described 

 and figured by Prof. Weiss be specifically identical with that brought over by Sir 

 Woodbine Parish, and described by Dr. Buckland and Mr. Clift. Their ex- 



