138 FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 



the articulation with the last phalanx but one, is after the fashion 

 of a double pulley, hollow on each side, with a projecting crest 

 in the middle, which constitutes a serrated gynglymus, as in the 

 edentata. The concave arch formed by this pulley goes more 

 in the rear of its upper part, which prevents the phalanx from 

 straightening again as in the felinae, but forces it to bend under- 

 neath, as in the edentata. These characters clearly prove it to 

 be an unguical phalanx of this order. 



There are two others, which as clearly determine the genus. 



1. On the unguical phalanges of the ant-eaters is a furrow, 

 indicating a disposition to bifurcation ; but the pangolins alone 

 have this bifurcation decidedly marked, and deepening verti- 

 cally through the entire elevation of the bone, as far as the 

 middle of its length. Now, the fossil bone has this bifurcation 

 still more strongly marked. Though one of the branches of 

 the fork is broken towards the root, yet the entire bottom of 

 the fissure which separates them is visible, and it must have 

 occupied more than half the length of the bone. 



2. The unguical phalanges of the pangolins want those 

 osseous sheaths which, in the sloths, and partly in the ant- 

 eaters and the tatous, rise on the sides of the base, and envelope 

 the root, of the claw . The largest of these unguical phalanges 

 is marked by nothing but a slight enlargement under the base, 

 which forms on each side a small longitudinal edge. The fossil 

 bone is precisely similar ; no osseous sheath is visible upon it. 



Thus we find that this bone has nothing analogous in nature, 

 excepting the correspondent parts of the pangolins ; and from 

 all the laws of co-existence, no other conclusion can be drawn 

 but that the animal which possessed it belonged to the same 

 genus with these quadrupeds. Nor was this the largest of the 

 unguical phalanges, for it has not the slight edges of the large 

 phalanges of the pangolins — the under part of the base is only 

 a little rugous and inflated. The holes through which the 

 larger vessels pass are not pierced underneath, but towards the 

 bottom and hinder part of each lateral facet. 



