380 PALEONTOLOGY. 



The single mutilated ungual phalanx on which Cuvier 

 based his conclusions in regard to the species in question was 

 discovered, associated with remains of Rhinoceros, Mastodon, 

 Dinotherium, and Tapir, in a formation near Eppelsheim, 

 Hesse-Darmstadt, which is now determined to belong to the 

 miocene division of the tertiary series. This phalanx shews 

 two distinctive characters of the edentate order : — 1st, Its 

 posterior surface for articulation with the antepenultimate 

 phalanx is a double pulley, hollowed out on each side, with a 

 salient crest between, constituting the firm kind of ginglymoid 

 joint peculiar to certain Edentata; 2d, The concave arch 

 formed by that pulley curves furthest backward at its upper 

 part, which would prevent the claw being retracted upward, 

 as in the cat tribe, and constrain the flexion downward — con- 

 sequently the phalanx must have belonged to an edentate 

 quadruped* To the foregoing characters are joined two 

 others which Cuvier believed to determine the genus. The 

 species of Myrmecophaga have on the upper part of the 

 pointed end of the claw-phalanx a groove, indicative of a 

 disposition to bifurcate ; in the species of Manis the bifurca- 

 tion is complete, the cleft extending as far as the middle 

 of the claw-bone : so likewise in this fossil. The Pan- 

 golins {Manis) have not those bony sheaths which, in the 

 sloths, some ant-eaters and armadillos, rise from the base and 

 cover the root of the claw ; there was a like absence of any 

 claw-sheath in the fossil. Thus the fossil claw-bone has no 

 homologue in existing nature save those of the Manis ; and, 

 " according to all the laws of co-existence, it is impossible to 

 doubt that the most marked relations of the animal that bore it 

 should have been with that genus of quadrupeds."f But what 

 must have been its size ? The phalanx was not one of the 

 largest on the foot — for it had not those slight raised borders 



-;•::- << Ainsi c'est necessairement un ongueal d'edente." — Ossemens Fossiles, 

 4to, t. v., pt, i., p. 193, f Ossemens Fossiles, 4to, t. v., pt. i., p. 194. 





