ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XCV 



names to some of those species. He further observes that one of 

 the four species described by Professor Owen was not, in his opinion, 

 sufficiently known to be accurately determined, and ought perhaps to 

 have been transferred to a separate genus. 



Mi Nodot had the advantage of examining a very valuable collec- 

 tion of remains of Edentata, brought home from South America in 

 1846, by Vice- Admiral Dupotet, and which his widow, in conformity 

 with his wishes, conferred upon the Museum at his untimely death. 

 The larger portion of his collections had been previously deposited in 

 the Museum at Paris ; but this generous contribution to the treasures 

 of a provincial museum consists of 2000 fragments, more or less 

 valuable, but which were all confusedly packed together in the chests 

 containing them. The task of identification and restoration was 

 necessarily very great ; but M. Nbdot carried it on vigorously and 

 successfully, adopting as rules for preparatory selection — 1st, the 

 colour of the fragments ; 2nd, the thickness of the fragments ; 3rd, 

 the peculiar markings or figured designs upon them ; 4th, anomalous 

 forms, tubercles, &c. ; by which arrangement the whole number of 

 fragments were reduced into 30 groups, and the examination greatly 

 simplified, whilst M. Nodot was enabled by the same means to com- 

 pare the specimens at Dijon with those at Paris, and thus to supply 

 many deficiencies in the parts of the former by castings from analo- 

 gous portions amongst the Paris specimens. 



Having thus completed the reconstruction of his species* M. Nodot 

 compares it with the Glyptodon clavipes of Owen, and notes the fol- 

 lowing differences : — 



1st. The carapace or cuirass is much more convex than in Glyptodon 

 clavipes, and resembles the form of a truncated pear more than of a 

 cylinder, — a difference which may be sexual, but in that case would 

 mark the specimen as having been a female. 



2nd. Nearly all the osselets which compose the cuirass are hex- 

 agonal, whilst in G. clavipes they are pentagonal. Besides, the cir- 

 cular or ovoidal markings, situated on the front of the central line of 

 the osselets in the G. clavipes, are on the posterior extremity in the 

 Dijon species. 



3rd. The tubercles which form a border to the carapace of G. cla- 

 vipes are all alike in form and size, and are supported on two rows 

 of osselets, whereas in the other species the tubercles are disposed 

 in series of different forms, and several are articulated with only a 

 single row of osselets, their edges being angular and imbricated, which 

 gives a segmentary character to the sides of the animal. 



4th. The carapace of the G. clavipes exhibits not a trace of an 

 anterior or posterior buckler, whilst it is distinctly visible on the 

 lower margin of each side of the carapace of the other. 



5th. The tail of the G. clavipes is composed of pieces strongly 

 articulated, and intimately connected together, which form a homo- 

 geneous and inflexible sheath, which envelopes the vertebrae of the 

 tail, whilst in the other the tail is merely annulated and extremely 

 flexible, both laterally and downwards, having also a series of sup- 

 plementary tubercles articulated on the axial line of each ring, of 



