PEDIGREE OF ARMADILLOS 
What has been the history of these queer little creatures? 
In no group of mammals is the contrast between the present 
and the past so striking as in these edentates. As Ancestry of 
to their remote beginnings, little or nothing is known, #4e*@tes- 
but representatives of the three South American groups have 
been obtained from nearly the whole breadth of the Tertiary for- 
mations. The fossils show that the ant-eater-sloth type was sepa- 
APAR, OR THREE-BANDED ARMADILLO. 
rated very early from the armadillo type, and never have had 
associated with them any Old World fodients. In the earlier 
Tertiary strata of Patagonia, there occur the remains of animals 
which have slothlike characteristics in skull and teeth, but are 
evidently not arboreal, and therefore have been called ‘‘ground 
sloths.” They measured only about three feet in total length, 
had no armor or weapons of defense, and, as they were sur- 
rounded by big, rapacious beasts, it is surmised that they 
must have been burrowers, since otherwise they could not 
have existed so long and plentifully as they did; their strong, 
well-clawed fore limbs certainly imply digging powers. It is 
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