Megalonyx in Holmes county, Ohio. — Clay pole. 125 
mammals. The living members are well differentiated from each 
other, but a slight acquaintance with its palaeontology suffices to 
show that this sharp definition is due to the disappearance of man}' 
intervening links that have dropped out of existence. The extinct 
members of this family far outnumber and outweigh their sur- 
vivors. Its glory has departed and it is now represented on earth 
by small and degenerate descendants of huge and powerful an- 
cestors, albeit we must doubtless grant that the former are better 
fitted to the environment of the day than would be the latter. 
South America is now, and so far as we know always has been, 
the metropolis of slothdom. More of the Edentate order now live 
on that continent than in any other part of the world, and it has 
yielded to our museums the greatest abundance of the gigantic 
fossil forms. Both the living and the extinct are alike distin- 
guished by certain features that mark them off from all other 
Mammalia. There is no enamel on the teeth, and no incisor or 
canine teeth are found (with a few exceptions) in any of the Eden- 
tates recent or extinct. The teeth are all of the same pattern, are 
not shed, and grow during the whole life of the animal. Some of 
the family are also remarkable for being the only mammals that 
develop a hard external skeleton, the Armadillos and Glyptodons, 
for example. 
Not a single Edentate has been found on the continent of Eu- 
rope, nor, so far as is known, has any one ever lived there. 
Northern Asia and Australia have also yielded no traces of the 
order. But from South America its members ranged into the 
southern part of North America, and by means of land communi- 
cation that has since been destroyed, into Africa and southern 
Asia. The hairy ant-bears of Ethiopia, the scaly pangolins of 
India and Africa, and the Armadillos, ant-eaters and sloths of 
South America are all the species of the order that now survive. 
Of these the last only exceed a fox in size, while few of the rest 
are larger than a rabbit. 
The following are the families into which the order is divided: 
1. The Orycteropodidse or Ant-bears. 
2. The Manidse or Pangolins. 
3. The Dasypodidoe or Armadillos. 
4. The Myrmecophagidae or Ant-eaters. 
5. The Grlyptodontidse or Glyptodonts (extinct). 
