. A guide to the fossil mammals and birds in the Department of Geology and Palæontology in the British Museum (Natural History) .. . o escape destruction, after themanner of their modern representatives, the Tree-sloths andAnt-eaters. Most of these remains have been obtained from the Pleistocenedeposits in the Argentine Republic; but similar relics have alsobeen procured from Patagonia, Brazil, Uruguay, Chili, andBolivia, all in South America, and from nine different Statesin the United States of ISbrth America. The Edentata, although so largely represented in America,are not strictly confined
. A guide to the fossil mammals and birds in the Department of Geology and Palæontology in the British Museum (Natural History) .. . o escape destruction, after themanner of their modern representatives, the Tree-sloths andAnt-eaters. Most of these remains have been obtained from the Pleistocenedeposits in the Argentine Republic; but similar relics have alsobeen procured from Patagonia, Brazil, Uruguay, Chili, andBolivia, all in South America, and from nine different Statesin the United States of ISbrth America. The Edentata, although so largely represented in America,are not strictly confined to that region, but are represented inSouth Africa by the Cape Ant-eater (the Aard-Vark ofthe Dutch settlers), the Pangolins or Scaly Ant-eatersbelonging to the genus Manis, which have a very wide rangeover the greater part of Africa, and in India from the Himalayasto Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, Southern China, Amoy, Hainan, andFormosa. Remains of the Cape Ant-eater, Orycteropus (Pig. 88), 74 Marsupialia—Kangaroos, etc. have been discovered in the Older Pliocene deposits of the Islandof Samos, Asia Minor, and of Maragha, Fig. 88.—Lateral view of the skull of the living Cape Ant-eater, Orycteropuscapensis (Gm.); South Africa (reduced). Such a wide geographical distribution naturally implies acorrespondingly great antiquity in geological time for thissingular group, which must have witnessed most markedchanges in the configuration of the ancient continents, on partsof which its modern descendants now find themselves so widelyseparated geographically. Sub-class II.— X.—MARSUPIALIA. (Kaxgaroo, Wombat, &c.) Wall-case, Just as the South American Continent had, in past ages, No. 27. its peculiar group of colossal Edentata, represented at the pre- Table-cases, sent day by the Ant-eater, the Armadillo and Tree-Sloth, so theand 15 great Island-Continent of Australia had formerly its peculiar indigenous fauna of huge Marsupialia, represented by theexisting Kan
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectmammals, bookyear1896
