6l2 



MANUAL OF ZOOLOGY. 



therium (fig. 239) was eighteen feet in length, with bones as 

 massive, or more so, than the Elephant 



Pig. 239. — Mcgaihernim. From the Upper Tertiaries of South America (Pleistocene). 



In the same way the little banded Armadillos of South 

 America were formerly represented by_ gigantic species, con- 

 stituting the genus Glyptodon. The Glyptodons (fig. 240) differed 

 fi-om the living Armadillos in having no bands in their armour, 

 so that they must have been unable to roll themselves up. * It 

 is rare at the present day to meet with any Armadillo over 

 two or three feet in length ; but the length of the Glyptodon 

 davipes, from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail, was 

 more than nine feet. 



Fig. 240. — Glyptodon clavifes. Pleistocene deposits of South America. 



All these gigantic South American Edentates occur in Post- 

 tertiary deposits. Older, however, than any of these is the 

 Macrotherium. This is a gigantic Edentate, intermediate in 

 some respects between the Pangolins and Oryderopus, and 

 found in certain lacustrine deposits of France, of Miocene age. 



Order IV. Sirmia. — This order contains only the living 

 Manatees and Dugongs, aifd is of little geological importance. 

 The Halitherium, however, of the Eocene, Miocene, and Plio- 



