Stomach with thick muscular walls and lining membrane, and a special gland near the middle of the great curvature, consisting of a mass of complex secreting follicles, the ducts of which terminate in a common orifice. No caecum, but a gall-bladder. Head small, depressed, narrow, and pointed in front, with a very small mouth-opening. Eyes and ears very small. Body elongated, narrow. Tail more or less elongated, convex above, flat underneath. Limbs short, and in walking the surface and outer sides of the phalanges of the two outer digits of the front feet alone rest on the ground, with the points of the nails turning upwards and inwards. The third toe the longest, with a powerful compressed curved claw, the second and fourth with similar but smaller claws, but that of the first toe often almost rudimentary. Hind-feet plantigrade with the first toe very short, and the four other toes subequal, and carrying moderate, curved, compressed nails. Pangolins are of small or moderate size, terrestrial and burrowing, and feed mainly on termites or white ants; some of the species being more or less arboreal. They can roll themselves up in a ball when in danger. Their peculiar elongated form, short limbs, long tapering tail, and scaly covering give them on a superficial inspection more the appearance of reptiles than of mammals. The species are not numerous and may be divided into two sections, one comprising the Asiatic species, such as _M. javanica_, _M. aurita_ of China, and the Indian _M. pentadactyla_, and the other the African, as represented by the large _M. gigantea_, _M. temminchi_, the long-tailed _M. macrura_, and the small arboreal _M. tricuspis_. In the Asiatic group the middle series of scales continues to the tip of the tail; but in the African forms this row splits into two a few inches from the tail-tip. The latter have also no hairs between the scales and no external ears. The climbing species have a small bare patch on the under side of the tail near the tip (see PANGOLIN). _Extinct Edentates._ Beyond remains of species closely allied to or identical with the existing forms, the sloths and anteaters appear to be unknown in a fossil state. On the other hand the extinct family of ground sloths, or _Megatheriidae_, which includes the largest of all edentates, is an exceedingly large one, and extends in South America from the Miocene to the Pleistocene, and was also represented during the latter epoch in North America. It serves to connect the _Bradypodidae_ with _Myrmecophagidae_. The alleged occurrence of an allied form in Madagascar is somewhat doubtful (see MEGATHERIUM and MYLODON).