. Brehm's Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammalia. Mammals; Animal behavior. 392 THE TOOTHLESS ANIMALS. mal. The native sportsmen affirmed that it equaled a large Pig in size, and this statement seemed to be borne out by the diameter of the entrance to these burrows and still more by the size of the skins of tails which the prince found among the Botocudos. The Botocudos of the Rio Grande de Belmonte had speaking tubes, which were plainly called "Tatu tails," and were fourteen and one-half inches long and three an
. Brehm's Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammalia. Mammals; Animal behavior. 392 THE TOOTHLESS ANIMALS. mal. The native sportsmen affirmed that it equaled a large Pig in size, and this statement seemed to be borne out by the diameter of the entrance to these burrows and still more by the size of the skins of tails which the prince found among the Botocudos. The Botocudos of the Rio Grande de Belmonte had speaking tubes, which were plainly called "Tatu tails," and were fourteen and one-half inches long and three and one-fifth inches in diameter at the larger end. The Giant Tatu, Later investigations show that the a Monster Giant Tatu {Priodo/i gigas) attains a Species. body length of three feet or over, the tail measuring about half as much; Kappler gives its weight as ninety pounds. The entire cere- bral dome of the skull is covered by very irregular bony plates. The shoulder part of the armor con- sists of ten bands, another row being interpolated on the lower portion of the flanks; twelve or thirteen zones consisting of mobile scutes follow; the pos- terior buckler contains sixteen or seventeen rows. The plates may be square, rectangular, or may have five or six angles, and the hindmost rows of the posterior shield are irregular in shape, the tail is covered by square bony plates of irregular thick- ness. Probably the most remarkable anatomical feature of the animal, however, is its dentition. The upper jaw on each side contains from twenty-four to twenty-six teeth, the under jaw in each row from twenty-two to twenty-four, of which several are frequently lacking, however. Still there are from ninety to one hundred fully developed teeth or rudi- mentary organs, performing the office of teeth; but in the anterior portion of the rows they are only thin plates, gradually assuming stouter proportions toward the rear. What use the Giant Tatu finds for all these teeth is quite a mystery, as
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjecta, booksubjectmammals
