NATURE OF GROUND SLOTHS 
It is evident from their massiveness that these ground sloths 
were terrestrial; their limbs and feet show that they must have 
been very slow and clumsy in movement, and no Ground 
creature so heavy and short-legged could cdimb a “0 
tree. Nevertheless monstrous creatures like these could not 
have obtained sustenance in a trecless region, such as that of 
the pampas now is, and we mav assume from this and other 
circumstances that in their day the Argentine plains were 
forested. “‘ Browsing on the leaves and perhaps on the smaller 
branches of forest trees, the ground sloths probably obtained 
their food by rearing themselves up against the trunks, sup- 
ported on the tripod formed by their massive hind limbs and 
powerful tail... That they continued to inhabit the land after 
humanity had invaded their haunts. is testied to by undoubted 
evidence, including bones wounded with stone arrowheads. and 
pictures left upon the walls of caves once human homes. These 
prehistoric draughtsmen hunted the megatheres and ate their 
flesh; there is evidence even that they had domesticated some 
of the ground sloths — probably as a reserve supply of food. 
In certain dry caves of Patagonia have even been found large 
fragments of their hides. still clothed with long coarse hair; and 
it is plain that they came to an end only a few thousands of 
years ago — how or why is one of the mysteries of zodlogy.” 
Even more extraordinary were the forerunners of the arma- 
dillos, the glvyptodons, perhaps the most astonishing of all 
extinct mammals. Instead of the movable plate  Glypto- 
armor of the armadillos, their cousins of the late 4" 
Tertiary had bodies protected by a bony shell or ‘‘carapace,” 
which gave them a striking outward resemblance to turtles; 
but anatomically they were very unlike those reptiles, for the 
carapace had no attachment to the skeleton, but was composed 
of a mosaic of little plates of bone formed within the skin, vary- 
ing in shape and sculpture according to species. joined by their 
edges, and covered with a horny coat. Each bit of the mosaic 
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