74 GUIDE TO THE FOSSIL MAMMALS AND BIRDS. 



Table-case been found in the province of Buenos Aires so intimately 

 15a ~ associated with remains of the ground-sloths that there can 

 be no doubt as to the survival of these gigantic quadrupeds 

 until the time of man at least in the southern part of South 

 America. The most important discoveries, however, which 

 appear to prove this survival were made in 1897 and 

 subsequent years by Dr. F. P. Moreno, Dr. R. Hauthal, Baron 

 Erland Nordenskjold, and others, in a cavern near Consuelo 

 Cove, Last Hope Inlet, Patagonia, between the 51st and 

 52nd degrees of south latitude. Here, in an absolutely dry 

 and powdery deposit on the floor of the large cavern, were 

 found numerous broken bones of several individuals of a 

 ground-sloth, Grypotherium, which was nearly as large as 

 Mylodon and only differed from the latter in minor features. 

 With the bones were several pieces of skin, evidently of the 

 same animal, which showed marks of tools and seemed to 

 have been stripped off the carcase by man. There were also 

 large lumps of excrement, besides masses of cut grass which 

 may have been intended for fodder. With the Grypotherium 

 were found bones of other extinct animals ; and in the same 

 cavern there were implements of stone and bone, remains 

 of fires, and even the bones of man himself. The Argentine 

 explorers, in fact, concluded that the Grypotherium had 

 actually been kept in the cavern and fed by man, who 

 eventually killed the animals for food. 



A series of specimens illustrating this discovery is 

 exhibited in Table-case 15a. The sharply broken bones are 

 remarkably fresh in appearance, still bearing the dried and 

 shrivelled remains of gristle, sinews and flesh. The pieces 

 of skin (Plate IV) are coA r ered with dense, coarse hair on 

 the outside ; while the inner layer of their substance is filled 

 with small nodules of bone, which are exposed on the inside 

 where the skin is slightly decayed. Similar little bones 



„. „ have been found in great numbers with the skeletons of 



W 8ill— C*fl.H6 



2g_ Mylodon in the Pampa Formation (see Wall-case 26), so that 

 this ground-sloth and its allies must have been armoured 

 with a bony mail beneath the hairy outer surface of the skin. 

 The lumps of excrement from the cavern consist only of 

 remains of grass, without any traces of leaves. Among 

 associated animals may be particularly noted the extinct 

 horse, Onohippidium, of which there are characteristic teeth 

 besides many well-preserved hoofs. 



The armadillos which lived with the Pampean ground- 

 sloths, were also gigantic compared with their existing 



