192 EDENTATA 
burrow underground like the Armadillos. Though generally an 
inoffensive animal, when attacked it can defend itself vigorously and 
effectively with its sabre-like anterior claws. The female bears but 
a single young at a birth. 
The union of the pterygoids in the middle line to prolong the 
narial passage is a character found elsewhere among existing mam- 
mals only in the next genus, in one Armadillo (Yatusia), and in 
certain Cetacea. The contrast in length between the skull of the 
Great Anteater and that of the Sloth is, as Professor Parker observes, 
very marked indeed ; the one being relatively the longest and the 
Wy 
WN X 
ANN a 
Fic. 64.—The Great Anteater (Myrmecophaga jubuta). (From Sclater, List of Animals in 
Zoological Society's Gardens, 18S3, p. 190.) 
other almost the shortest in the whole class. The small size and 
incomplete development of the jugal bone in the zygomatic arch 
affords another striking contrast to the Sloths (Fig. 59). 
Tamandua.1—This genus closely resembles the last in anatomical 
structure, but the head is much less elongated, the fur is short and 
bristly, the tail tapering, prehensile, with the under side through- 
out and the whole of the terminal portion naked and scaly. The 
stomach is similar to that of J/yrmecophaga, but with the muscular 
pyloric gizzard not quite so strongly developed. There is a distinct 
ileo-colic valve and a short globular cecum. The fore foot has a very 
large claw on the third toe, moderate-sized claws on the second and 
1 Gray, Annals of Philosophy, new series, vol. x. p. 343 (1825). 
