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Giant Sloths and Armadillos: Pampas

SKELETON OF GLYPTODON CLAVIPES (IMMATURE, WITHOUT CARAPACE). From the Pampas formation, Buenos Aires, La Plata Museum. (After Lydekker.) PLATE LII. bones of other extinct animals; and in the same cavern were implements of stone and bone, remains of fires, and even the bones of man himself. The Argentine explorers, in fact, concluded that the Grypotherium had actually been kept in the cavern and fed by man, who eventually killed the animals for food." At the Natural History Museum may be seen a series of specimens illustrating this discovery. The pieces of skin are covered with coarse hair on the outside, and on the inside are small nodules of bone. These bony nodules (found with other skeletons in the Pampas formation) are of special interest: first, because their presence had never before been even suspected, and secondly, because they serve to some extent to strengthen the bonds of relationship between Sloths and Armadillos, which have a heavy armour (see p. 292). An extinct horse was also found in this cave.