778 General Notes, [July, 
A new EDENTATE.—M. Burmeister describes, under the name 
of Nothropus priscus,a sloth from the pampas of the Argentine 
Republic. Megatherium, Scelidotherium, Mylodon, and other 
gigantic related forms did not climb trees, and were not nearly 
related to the existing Bradypodide, whereas Nothropus, though 
twice the size of the largest sloth now living, probably possessed 
their arboreal habits.. Though half the lower jaw with three 
teeth is all that is known of this genus, the form of the bone and 
conformation of the teeth is unmistakable, but approaches Cho- 
loeepus more than Bradypus. The crown of the hinder molars: 
has a tendency to divide into two lobes, thus recalling the molars 
of the huge extinct gravigrades. 
Grotocicat News. — Pale@ozoic.— In the May issue of the 
Geological Magazine, Professor C. Lapworth commences a series 
of articles upon the stratigraphy of the highly convoluted lower 
Paleozoic rocks, with the object of showing that conclusions as 
to the relative age of the strata, based upon their apparent post- 
tion, may often prove erroneous through the abrupt sigmoidal 
flexures that complicate their structure. After denudation 
taken place, an older stratum of the upper part of the sigmaplex 
or sigmoidal fold may apparently rest unconformably upon 4 
newer stratum, ia 
Tertiary —Baron von Ettingshausen contributes to the April issue 
of the Geological Magazine an article upon the Tertiary flora 0 
Australia, including a list of about a hundred species. Twenty-seven 
species from Dalton, New South Wales, are all new, but only two of 
the twenty-one genera are new, the others occurring in the Tertiary 
of Europe (to), North America and North Asia (13), Java @) 
Sumatra (3). Only six are contained in the living flora of ers 
tralia. Thus the Tertiary flora of Australia is far more ae 
allied to the Tertiary floras of the other continents than to er 
living flora of Australia, Mr. E. T. Newton has published Ue 
results of his investigations among the Vertebrata of the Fo ad 
Bed series of Norfolk and Suffolk. Exclusive of some uor 
Cervidæ, seventy-nine species are enumerated, including si 
mammoth. Three species are entirely new. These ren a 
long to the fauna of Great Britain in the period immediately an! 
cedent to the Glacial epoch. are 
Quaternary —The fauna and flora of the European pei 7 
again brought to the front by Mr. Howorth in an answer ( 
the grassy regions which, according to Dr. Nehring. ex 
supplied pasturage for this fauna, could not possibly be th hon 
of the accumulations of dust needed by Dr. Richthofen $ me 
of the origin of the loess. The Philosophical Faculty te 
University of Munich have awarded the prize offered and 
“Thorough description of the Diluvial Glacial formations 
