﻿Some Curious Animals. 



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canus, and 31. giganteus, survived quite to a late Pleistocene period. Their 

 remains are met with most abundantly over the northern half of the United 

 States, though occurring also in the Carolinas, Mississippi, Arkansas and 

 Texas. The best skeletons have been dug out of marshes, in which the 

 animals had become mired. Three perfect skeletons have been obtained from 

 the fresh water marshes of Orange Co. , N. Y. ; another from near Cohoes 

 Falls on the Mohawk ; another in Indiana ; one from a morass in New Jer- 

 sey, and another on the banks of the Missouri, "while portions of its re- 

 mains have been found in this and many other states. 



The Grlyptodon was the gigantic representative in the Pleistocene times of 

 the armadillos of South America. It was furnished with a huge carapace, 

 or coat of mail, formed of hexagonal plates, united by sutures, and consti- 

 tuting an impenetrable covering for the upper part of the body and the 

 tail — the carapace differs from that of the modern armadillos in having 

 no greaves or joints, for the purpose of contracting or rolling up its body. 

 The head was defended by a tesselated bony casque. The tail possessed 

 an independent dermal sheath, or cuirass, and must have been a very formid- 

 able weapon. The bones of the leg and foot were perfectly adapted to bear the 

 steady pressure of this enormous weight. The teeth, numbering eight 

 on each side of each jaw, are sculpterd laterally by two wide and deep 

 channels, which divide the grinding surface into three portions. The 

 generic name was derived from the fluting of the molars. The remains of 

 one of these animals measured from snuut to the end of the tail following 

 the curve of the back eleven feet ; the tesselated trunk armor being six 

 feet, eight inches in length, and nine feet across, and probably weighing 

 more than a thousand pounds. The Glyptodon does not appear to have emi- 

 grated from the central regions of South America, but formed part of a local 

 fauna of the highest interest, which is only faintly represented by the living 

 armadilllos. 



The Pterodactyle is one of the most extraordinary of all the creatures 

 yet discovered in the ruins of a primeval world. Collins, in 1784, was the 

 first to investigate the character of this strange animal ; he considered it a 

 a fish ; Blumenbach decided it was a bird; Sommering, a mammal ; Spix, 

 that it was intermediate between monkeys and bats; Macleay, a link be- 

 tween mammals and birds, and Agassiz thinks it a strictly marine reptile. 

 Cuvier in 1800 determined the place and name it now holds. 



The Pterodactylus crassirostris is distinguished by a very large head, a 

 comparatively short neck, a small trunk, bat-like wings and a tail. It has 

 been estimated that some of these strange monsters, now happily extinct, 

 had an expanse of wing surpassing that of the great albatross, but this 



