The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 10 (of 10)Beddard, Frank E. (Frank Evers)
Science
The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 10 (of 10)
Beddard, Frank E. (Frank Evers)
Animals; Mammals
of the skeleton than that of the foot to guide his judgment, and he should
fail to detect a most striking similarity between it and that of the
Edentata, especially the Ground Sloths, he would not only lay himself open
to the criticism of being lacking in the ordinary powers of observation and
comparison, but would be suspected of placing the matter upon a basis other
than that established by such a method." It is not certain how many toes
upon the fore-limbs were possessed by _Psittacotherium_, but the close
resemblance to _Mylodon_ is indeed striking, the third digit being in both
forms the most pronounced. Some vertebrae of this Ganodont have been
discovered which do not show the complex articular arrangements of later
American Edentates. The sacrum, on the other hand, is very like that of the
Sloth, and there is a foreshadowing of the attachment of the ilia to the
sacrum by co-ossification which is met with in later Edentates. A still
later type is the genus _Calamodon_, which has been shown to occur in
Europe as well as in America. _C. simplex_ was a larger beast than either
of the genera that have already been treated of, thus affording another
example of the increase in size of later as compared with earlier members
of the same group, so pronounced among the Ungulata. The lower jaw has the
same massive structure that characterises that bone in _Hemiganus_ and
_Psittacotherium_. There is but one incisor, but the premolar and molar
series are complete. The canine is Rodent-like in appearance, being
imbedded throughout the greater part of the lower jaw; it evidently grew
from a persistent pulp. It is enamelled upon the anterior face only. The
premolar and molar teeth are in this genus commencing to lose their enamel,
which is distributed in the form of vertical bands, leaving interspaces
which are not covered by enamel. These teeth, moreover, are decidedly
hypselodont, more decidedly so than in _Psittacotherium_; they are, when
unworn, quadricuspidate, with accessory cusps; when more worn, the teeth
{193} are double-ridged, and that transversely to the long axis of the jaw;
finally, the much-worn teeth have flattish crowns more or less surrounded
by a ring of enamel.
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