On the osteology of the genus Glyptodon / by Thomas H. Huxley.

  • Huxley, Thomas Henry, 1825-1895.
Date:
[1865]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the osteology of the genus Glyptodon / by Thomas H. Huxley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    been compelled by the local authorities to send to Eio Janeiro all the bones and the finest pieces of the carapace, which he discovered in association with the fragments of dermal armour figured by Weiss*; but, by good fortune, these additional materials at length found their way into the Berlin Museum, and afforded I)'Altov the materials for his memoir, in the first section of which the pieces of the carapace of the fossil animal are described; while the second section is devoted to an account of the structure of the dermal armour of living Armadillos, and the third to a description of the fossil bones found in juxtaposition with that dermal armour. The results of the comparison of the fossil armour with that of existing Armadillos are thus stated:— “ If we compare these fossil dermal plates with those of living species of Dasypms, it becomes obvious that all the peculiarities of the former may be paralleled by the latter; but with this difference, that while, as appears from Sellow’s report, all the fossil plates belonged to one and the same animal, their peculiarities are not all found associated together in any one living species. The majority of the fossil plates which were distant from the margin, e. g. those represented by Weiss in figs. 1, 4, & 5, and many described above, exhibit the greatest similarity to the dermal plates of Dasypus niger; and thence it may be concluded that the epidermis of the Dasypus of the ancient world (if for brevity’s sake I may so name the animal), like that of the Dosypus niger, was divided differently from the bony plates, and that strong hairs were arranged in the interstices of the epidermic scales. “ The pieces which belonged to the edge, or the pointed marginal scutes (Zacken), most nearly resemble those of D. Poyou (fig. 12 of our first Plate), and I). grandis shows a somewhat similar formation. In addition, the thoracic shield and the moveable zones of I), villosus (fig. 18) are also provided with pointed marginal scutes; and, according to Azaka, the Tatou picliey exhibits similar structures. But in all the animals provided with such pointed scutes, they are directed from above, and forwards, downwards, and * Professor Owen writes (On the Glyptodon clavijpes, Geol. Trans, vol. iii. pp. 82, 83), “ The portions of the tessellated bony armour figured by Professor Weiss, pi. 1 and 2, and described at p. 277 of his memoir, were obtained by Sellow on the Arapey-Chico in the province of Monte Video; but no bones either of the Megatherium, or any other animal, are mentioned as having been associated with them. A third series of fossils, in which fortunately some bones of the extremities were discovered associated with the tessellated bony case, was presented to Sellow by the President of the province of San Pedro, with the information that they had been originally discovered in the proximity of Rio Janeiro.” This, however, appears to be a misapprehension of the state of the case. The armour figured by Weiss in pi. 1 and 2 of his memoir, and the “ third series of fossils ” were associated together; and so far from the President of the province of San Pedro having presented anything to Sellow, it was Sellow wdio was obliged to present the fossils to the President, or at any rate, to dispose of them according to his orders. “ Demi die AufForderung des damaligen Prasidenten der Provinz San Pedro, des Yisconde des S. Leopoldo, nothigte ihn [Sellow] den hauptsachlichsten Theil dieser fossilen Ueberreste nach Rio Janeiro abzuliefern.” It is therefore sufficiently obvious that the fossils were not found at Rio Janeiro, but were sent to that place from Arapey-Chico. G o