ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
119 
HEAD OF GIANT ARMADILLO 
Note the long tongue, tremendously powerful middle claws, and very small fifth claw; the great muscles 
of the forearm, and the mosaic of plates with curious central designs. 
Photograph by John Tee-Van. 
The armadillo we have secured, although not 
full grown, measures over four and a half feet 
in length. The huge middle front claws are just 
short of five inches and are developed at the 
expense of the others, .which are greatly re¬ 
duced. Among the mass of data which I gath¬ 
ered from a study of the animal, a few points 
are of popular interest. Although classed as 
an Edentate, or toothless one, yet this individual 
had sixty-eight teeth, a number exceeded, I be¬ 
lieve among mammals only by certain whales. 
His generic name Priodontes, or “saw-toothed,” 
is infinitely more appropriate. The tongue ex¬ 
tended for five inches beyond the lips, and was 
covered with an infinite number of minute teeth, 
each a semi-circle of horn split into three to 
seven points. The most conservative estimate 
gave two hundred and fifty thousand to the en¬ 
tire tongue. With an unlimited supply of gluti¬ 
nous saliva supplied by two enormous cervical 
glands, the apparatus for feeding was complete. 
With its enormously strong claws it tears apart 
ants’ nests, or digs into decayed logs, and laps 
up the exposed insects. Our armadillo had fed 
on numerous beetle grubs and hundreds of ter¬ 
mites or white ants, and to assimilate this food 
a digestive system was provided more than 
'thirty-seven feet long. 
The mighty carapace is a mass of square 
plates set, mosaic-like, in about thirty-six rows, 
of which eleven are movable, permitting extreme 
flexibility. These plates are of bone with a 
sheathing of horn, and about as large as one’s 
thumb nail. They remind me of my old ivory 
netsukes, and in the centre of each is a half- 
effaced, sculptured symbol, of such variety that 
one can distinguish faces, figures, letters and 
strange designs. If this animal were a common 
