RELATIONSHIP OF ARMADILLO TO OTHER MAMMALS 217 



Armadillo, I would here mention two other interesting points. The 

 Giant Armadillo {Prionodon Maximus) has its hind feet ungulate : 

 its hoofs are almost exactly like those of the Malayan Tapir ; and 

 in some Rhinoceroses the incisor teeth are wholly wanting, 

 and that part of the jaw is contracted, not unlike that of the 

 Glyptodon. 



Then there is a type of Rhinoceros which brings us still more 

 closely to the Armadillo type. This is what Mr. W. T. Blanford ^ 

 says of the Rhinoceros Sondaicus, the smaller one-horned Rhino- 

 ceros which has been observed at great elevations in Burmah : 

 ' Skin naked, or nearly so, not tubercular, the epidermis divided 

 by cracks into small polygonal, sub-equal scale-like discs through- 

 out the body and limbs. Surface of the body divided into shields 

 by folds, as in R. Unicornis, but the fold in front of the shoulders 

 is continuous across the back, like that behind the shoulders and 

 that in front of the thighs.' 



That is to say, unlike the Indian Rhinoceros, the divisions of the 

 plated hide of this Javan Rhinoceros go right over the back exactly 

 like the divisions of the carapace of an Armadillo. So that between 

 the type of the Glyptodon and the type of the existing Armadillo 

 there must have been some intermediate type approaching that of 

 the R. Sondaicus, in which the armour still consisted of bone-rosettes, 

 somewhat like those of the Glyptodon, but the whole carapace 

 admitted of a freer movement, because it was divided into three 

 or four separate sections attached to each other by simple un- 

 armoured skin, acting as leather hinges, and the Rhinoceros 

 Sondaicus may be the descendant of this intermediate type of 

 Armadillo. 



Now in the Natural History Museum there is a small Rhinoceros 

 without a ticket (at least the ticket is not visible) about the size of 

 ' Fauna of British India, ' Mammalia,' p. 474. 



