100 
LOWEil MAMMAL GALLERY. 
Order IX. EDENTATA, or Sloths, Anteaters, 
AND Armadillos. 
(Lower Gallery, Cases 32 & 33.) 
The Edentates, as represented by the Sloths, Anteaters, and 
Armadillos of South and Central America and the Pangolins 
and Ant-Bears of the Old World, are characterized by the 
incomplete state of their dentition, teeth in many cases being 
absent, while when present they are always composed of dentine 
and cement only (without enamel), and rarely form roots. As 
a rule, the teeth are of a simple type, more or less completely 
alike, absent from the front of the jaws, and Avithout milk- 
predecessors. 
Ca>e o2.] Of the American members of the group, the Sloths (Brady- 
podidw) are characterized by their short round heads, long 
fore-legs, toes fastened together by skin and terminating in 
long curved claws, and the coat of coarse brittle hairs. They 
are entirely tailless. Sloths pass their whole existence on trees, 
hanging by their long and powerful claws to the underside of 
the branches, never descending to the ground unless compelled, 
and feeding on leaves and young twigs, for the mastication of 
which their few and simple teeth are sufficiently well suited. 
Inhabiting the forests of Tropical America, they are slow in 
their movements, but by no means so helpless as is often 
supposed, although they escape their enemies less by their own 
exertions than by the difficulty with which they are dis- 
tinguished from the branches to which they cling. This 
resemblance is increased by the growth of an alga in the 
grooves of the coarse hair (as illustrated in the case), which 
communicates a green tinge to the entire coat. 
Sloths have live teeth above and four below. The neck- 
vertebrse, which in all other Mammals except Manatees are 7 
in number, amount to no less than 9 in the Three-toed Sloths, 
.Bradyjnis ( 1383 ), while in certain of the Two-toed Sloths, 
Cholapus ( 1384 ), there are only 6. The pelvis is remarkable 
for being united to an unusually long portion of the back-bone. 
