APPENDIX A 317 



Skull and Mandible. 



The largest portion of cranium (No. i) is not stained in any way, and 

 does not retain a trace of the material in which it was buried in any 

 hollow or crevice. It does not appear to have been damaged during 

 excavation, but exhibits fractures which were almost certainly made when 

 the animal was freshly killed. The cranial roof near the occipital region 

 is battered in four places, though the injuries do not affect the brain- 

 case itself; while the right occipital condyle is partly removed by a sharp, 

 clean cut. There can, indeed, be no doubt that the animal was killed 

 and cut to pieces by man. 



This skull is evidently that of an adult animal, all the sutures in the 

 hinder region being closed. The inner wall of the temporal fossa is much 

 flattened, without any irregular convexities, but marked with the charac- 

 teristic reticulately-decussating, fine ridges of bone, and studded with 

 adherent patches of muscle-fibre. The upper border of the fossa is a 

 remarkably sharp edge, while the narrow flattened cranial roof is only 

 marked by a faint longitudinal median furrow and by a diminutive tuft of 

 fibre in a small median pit near the occipital edge.* The fractures 

 exhibit the very large cancellated chambers surrounding the brain -case 

 dorso-laterally ; while a median longitudinal section shows both these 

 cells and others in the basi-sphenoid. The basi-cranial axis is nearly 

 straight, inclining a little upwards in front. The anterior condyloid 

 foramina piercing the basi-occipital are remarkably large, as usual ; the 

 basi-sphenoid is very long and narrow, flattened mesially on its lower face, 

 but with one slight median prominence near its hinder end ; the pre- 

 sphenoid forms a short acute rostrum, above which there are remains 

 of the vomer. The hinder ends of the pterygoids are shown to be 

 inflated with large cancellse, but the sides of the base of the skull are 

 somewhat obscured by the dried soft parts. The mastoid process of the 

 periotic, with its articular facette for the stylohyal, seems to be rather 

 smaller than in Mylodon. The tympanic bone is preserved on the right 

 side, though wanting on the left. It is an irregular curved plate only 

 slightly buUate, but forming a complete floor to the tympanic cavity. 

 As usual in Edentata, it is not produced into an auditory meatus. 



The right maxilla (No. 4) is in precisely the same state of preservation 

 as the specimen just described, and probably belongs to the same skull. 

 Its anterior margin is perfectly preserved, indicating that the facial 

 region is very short in front of the anterior end of the zygomatic 

 arch, which is pierced by a rather large suborbital canal. Its upper 

 border proves that the nasal region was raised into a slightly convex 



* See S. Roth, op. cit. pi. ii. Fig. i. 



