CLASS I. MAMMALIA: 
ORDER 8. EDENTATA. 
47T 
imperishable monuments of tlie consmnmate skill with which they were constructed. Each limb 
and fragment of a limb formed co-ordinate parts of a well-adjusted and perfect whole, and 
through all their deviations from the form and proportion of the limbs of other quadrupeds, 
afforded fresh proofs of the infinitely varied and inexhaustible contrivances of creative wisdom." 
But this animal, which must have greatly exceeded the elephant in size and weight, was not 
the only geological Avonder of this part of the world. The bones of an extinct animal, called by 
geologists the Mylodon^ and nearly the size of a hippopotamus, have been discovered at various 
times in South America, and a complete skeleton has been obtained and placed in the Hunterian 
Museum of London. This is eleven feet long from the snout to the end of the tail. It has been 
proved that this creature fed on vegetables, and probably pulled down trees of considerable size 
and fed on the leaves and branches. It seems to have combined something of the organization of 
both the sloth and the armadillo, but in some respects it was unlike any known animal. It is 
probable that there were several species of Mylodon. 
Another geological curiosity, belonging to the Edentata of this quarter of the world, was the 
(xlyptodon, a species of gigantic armadillo, the remains of which have been found in various 
places. The entire length of one of these creatures was probably fourteen feet. The carapace of 
SKELETON OF THE MTLODON. 
one of them is preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, and appears 
like part of a huge cask. This covering is composed of horny plates, not disposed in rings or 
bands, as in the armadillo, but articulated together, and forming a tesselated cylinder or arch. 
The tail was inclosed in a scabbard of this nature. These are some of the revelations of geology 
