Chapter X: Front Matter (10)

The second family is that of the anteaters, _Myrmecophagidae_, distinguished from the last by the absence of teeth, the elongated tongue and the long tail. The long and slender head has a tubular mouth, with a small terminal aperture through which the worm-like tongue, covered with the sticky secretion of the enormous submaxillary salivary glands, is rapidly protruded in feeding, and withdrawn again with the adhering particles of food which are then sucked into the gullet. In the foot the third toe is greatly developed, and has a long sickle-like claw; the others are reduced or suppressed. The hind-foot has four or five subequal digits with claws. The long tail is sometimes prehensile. Placenta dome-like or discoidal. Externally the body is covered with hair. Anteaters feed exclusively on animal substances, mostly insects. One species is terrestrial, the others arboreal; none burrow in the ground. They are all inhabitants of tropical America. In the typical genus _Myrmecophaga_ the skull is remarkably elongated and narrow, with its upper surface smooth and cylindriform. Anteriorly the face is produced into a long tubular rostrum, rounded above and flattened below, with terminal nostrils, and composed of the mesethmoid (ossified for more than half its length), the vomer, the maxillae, and the long and narrow nasal bones, the premaxillae being extremely short and confined to the margin of the nostrils. The zygomatic arch is incomplete, the rod-like jugal only articulating with the maxilla in front, and not reaching the short zygomatic process of the squamosal. The lachrymal foramen is in front of the margin of the orbit. There are no post-orbital processes to the frontals or any other demarcation between the orbits and the temporal fossae. Palate extremely elongated, and produced backwards as far as the level of the external auditory meatus by the meeting in the middle line of the largely developed pterygoids. The glenoid fossa for the lower jaw, a shallow oval facet, with its long diameter from before backwards. Lower jaw long and slender, with an exceedingly short symphysis, no distinct coronoid process, and a slightly elevated, elongated, flattened, condylar articular surface. Vertebrae: C 7, D 15-16, L 3-2, S 6, Ca 31. Clavicles rudimentary. In the fore-foot the first digit is very slender, the second also slender, with compressed phalanges of nearly equal length, but the third is immensely developed, though its first phalanx is extremely short, while the terminal one is so long that the entire length of the digit exceeds that of the second. The fourth has a long and rather slender metacarpal, and three phalanges diminishing in size, the terminal phalange being very small. The fifth has the metacarpal nearly as long, but not so stout as the fourth, and followed by two small phalanges, the last rudimentary and conical. Claws are developed upon all but the fifth. In walking the toes are kept bent, with their points turned upwards and inwards, the weight being supported on a pad over the end of the fifth digit, and the upper surfaces of the third and fourth digits. The hind feet are short and rather broad, with five subequal claws, the fourth rather longest, the first shortest; the whole sole is placed on the ground in walking. Body rather compressed, clothed with long, coarse hair. Tail about as long as the body, and covered with very long hair; not prehensile. Ears small, oval, erect. Eyes very small. Stomach consisting of a sub-globular, thin-walled, cardiac portion, and a muscular pyloric gizzard with dense epithelial lining. No ileocolic valve; but a short, wide, ill-defined caecum. The two teats are pectoral.

The tamandua anteaters (_Tamandua_, or _Uroleptes_), of which several species (or races) are now recognized, are smaller animals than the last, in which the head is much less elongated, the fur short and bristly, and the tail, tapering, prehensile, with the under side throughout, and the whole of the terminal portion naked and scaly. The stomach is similar to that of _Myrmecophaga_, but with the muscular pyloric gizzard less strongly developed. There is a distinct ileocolic valve and short globular caecum. The fore-foot has a very large claw on the third toe, moderate-sized claws on the second and fourth, a minute one on the first, and none on the fifth, which is entirely concealed within the skin. The hind-foot has five subequal claws. Vertebrae: C 7, D 17, L 2, S 5, Ca 37. There are very rudimentary clavicles.

The last representative of the family is the tiny golden-haired pigmy or two-toed anteater, _Cyclopes_ (or _Cycloturus_) _didactylus_, in which the skull is much shorter even than in the preceding genus, and arched considerably in the longitudinal direction. It differs from that of the other members of the family mainly in the long canal for the posterior nostrils not being closed by bone below, as the greater part of the palatines and the pterygoids do not meet in the middle line. The lower jaw has a prominent, narrow, recurved coronoid, and a well-developed angular process, and is strongly decurved in front. Vertebrae: C 7, D 16, L 2, S 4, Ca 40. Ribs remarkably broad and flat. Clavicles well developed. Fore-foot remarkably modified, having the third digit greatly developed at the expense of all the others; it has a short stout metacarpal and but two phalanges, of which the terminal one is large, compressed, pointed and much curved, with a strong hook-like claw. The second digit has the same number of phalanges, and bears a claw, but is much more slender than the third. The fourth is represented only by the metacarpal, and one nailless phalange, the first and fifth only by rudimentary metacarpals. The hind-foot is also modified into a climbing organ, the first toe being rudimentary and consisting of a metatarsal and one phalange concealed beneath the skin, but the other four toes subequal and much curved, with long, pointed, compressed claws. The tuberosity of the heel-bone or calcaneum is directed towards the sole, and parallel with it and extending to about double its length is a greatly elongated sesamoid ossicle. These together support a prominent cushion to which the nails are opposed in climbing. Stomach pyriform, with muscular walls, but no distinct gizzard-like portion. The commencement of the colon provided with two small caeca, narrow at the base, but rather dilated at their terminal blind ends, and communicating with the general cavity by very minute apertures. Tail longer than the body, tapering, bare on the under surface and prehensile. Fur soft and silky.

The third and last existing family of the Xenarthra is that of the armadillos, or _Dasypodidae_, in which there are at least seven pairs of teeth in each jaw, while the tongue is normal, the tail generally long, and the body covered with an armour of bony plates overlain by horny scales. All the species are terrestrial, and insectivorous or more or less omnivorous.

The union of the numerous polygonal bony shields on the back and sides forms a hard shield, usually consisting of an anterior (scapular) and posterior (pelvic) solid portion (which overhang on each side the parts of the body they respectively cover, forming chambers into which the limbs are withdrawn), and a variable number of rings between, connected by soft flexible skin so as to allow of curvature of the body. The top of the head has also a similar shield, and the tail is usually encased in bony rings or plates. The outer or exposed surfaces of the limbs are protected by irregular bony plates, not united at their margins; but the skin of the inner surface of the limbs and under side of the body is soft and more or less clothed with hair. Hairs also in many species project through apertures between the bony plates of the back. The bony plates are covered by a layer of horny epidermis. Teeth numerous, simple, of persistent growth and usually without milk predecessors. Zygomatic arch of skull complete. Cervical vertebrae with extremely short, broad and depressed bodies; the first free, but the second and third, and often several of the others united together both by their bodies and arches. Clavicles well developed. A third trochanter on the femur. Tibia and fibula united at their lower extremities. Fore-feet with strongly developed, curved claws, adapted for digging and scratching, three, four or five in number. Hind-feet plantigrade, with five toes, all provided with nails. Tongue long, pointed and extensile, though to a less degree than in the anteaters. Submaxillary glands largely developed. Stomach simple. Placenta discoidal and deciduate.

The typical genus _Dasypus_, with several others, represents the subfamily _Dasypodinae_, which usually have all five toes developed and with nails, though the first and fifth may be suppressed. The first and second are long and slender, with the normal number and relative length of phalanges, the others stout, with short broad metacarpals, and the phalanges reduced in length and generally in number by coalescence; the terminal phalange of the third being large, that of the others gradually diminishing to the fifth. _Dasypus_ has the most normal form of fore-foot, but the modifications developed in all the others (culminating in _Tolypeutes_) are foreshadowed. Ears wide apart. Teats, one pair, pectoral. In _Dasypus_ the teeth are 9/10 or 8/9, of which the first in the upper jaw is usually implanted in the premaxillary bone. The series extends posteriorly some distance behind the anterior root of the zygoma, almost level with the hind edge of the palate. The teeth are large, subcylindrical, slightly compressed, diminishing in size towards each end of the series; the anterior two in the lower jaw smaller and more compressed than the others. Cranial portion of the skull broad and depressed, facial portion triangular, broad in front and depressed. Auditory bulla completely ossified, perforated on the inner side by the carotid canal, and continued externally into an elongated bony meatus auditorius, with its aperture directed upwards and backwards. (In all the other genera of _Dasypodinae_ the tympanic bone is a mere half-ring, loosely attached to the cranium.) Lower jaw with a high ascending branch, broad transversely placed condyle, and high slender coronoid process. Vertebrae: C 7, D 11-12, L 3, S 8, Ca 17-18. Head broad and flat above, with the muzzle obtusely pointed. Ears of moderate size or rather small, placed laterally far apart. Body broad and depressed. Armour with six or seven movable bands between the scapular and pelvic shields. Tail shorter than the body, tapering, covered with plates forming distinct rings near the base. Fore-feet with five toes; the first much more slender than the others, and with a smaller ungual phalange and nail; the second, though the longest, also slender. The third, fourth and fifth gradually diminishing in length, all armed with strong, slightly curved compressed claws, sloping from an elevated, rounded inner border to a sharp, outer and inferior edge. The hind-foot is rather short, and has all five toes armed with stout, compressed, slightly curved, obtusely pointed claws--the third the longest, the second nearly equal to it, the fourth the next, the first and fifth shorter and nearly equal.

To this genus belongs one of the best-known species of the group, the six-banded armadillo or encoubert (_D. sexcinctus_) of Brazil and Paraguay; a very similar species, _D. villosus_, the hairy armadillo, replacing it south of the Rio Plata. There are also two small species, _D. vellerosus_ and _D. minutus_, from the Argentine Republic and North Patagonia; the latter, which differs from the other three in having no tooth implanted in the premaxillary bone and is often referred to a genus apart, as _Zaedius_.

In _Tatoua_ (_Cabassous_ or _Lysiurus_) the teeth are 9/9 or 8/8, of moderate size and subcylindrical: the most posterior placed a little way behind the anterior root of the zygoma, but far from the hinder margin of the palate. Skull somewhat elongated, much constricted behind the orbits, and immediately in front of the constriction considerably dilated. Lower jaw slender, with the coronoid process small and sharp pointed, sometimes obsolete. Vertebrae: C 7, D 12-13, L 5, S 10, Ca 18. Head broad behind. Ears rather large and rounded, wide apart. Movable bands of armour 12-13. Tail considerably shorter than the body, and slender, covered with nearly naked skin, with a few small, scattered, bony plates, chiefly on the under surface and near the apex. On the fore-feet the first and second toes are long and slender, with small claws and the normal number of phalanges. The other toes have but two phalanges; the third has an immense sickle-like claw; the fourth and fifth similar but smaller claws. The hind-feet are comparatively small, with five toes, and small, triangular, blunt nails; the third longest, the first shortest. The best-known species of this genus, the tatouay or cabassou, _T. unicinctus_, is, after _Priodon gigas_, the largest of the group. It is found, though not abundantly, in Surinam, Brazil and Paraguay. Others, such as _T. hispidus_ and _T. lugubris_, have been described.

In the giant armadillo (_Priodon gigas_) the teeth are variable in number, and generally differ on the two sides of each jaw, being usually from 20 to 25 on each side above and below, so that as many as a hundred may be present altogether; but as life advances the anterior teeth fall out, and all traces of their sockets disappear. The series extends as far back as the hinder edge of the anterior root of the zygoma. They are all very small, in the anterior half of each series strongly compressed, with flat sides and a straight free edge, but posteriorly more cylindrical, with flat, truncated, free surfaces. Vertebrae: C 7, D 12, L 3, S 10, Ca 23. Head small, elongated, conical. Ears moderate, ovate. Armour with 12-13 movable bands. Tail nearly equal to the body in length, gradually tapering, closely covered with quadrangular scales, arranged in a quincunx pattern. Fore-feet with five toes, formed on the same plan as those of _Tatoua_, but with the claw of the third of still greater size, and that of the others, especially the fifth, proportionally reduced. Hind-foot short and rounded, with five very short toes, and short, broad, flat obtuse nails. The giant armadillo is by far the largest existing member of the family, measuring rather more than 3 ft. from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail, the tail being about 20 in. long. It inhabits the forest of Surinam and Brazil. The powerful claws of its fore-feet enable it to dig with great facility; and its food consists chiefly of termites and other insects, although it is said to attack and uproot newly-made graves for the purpose of devouring the flesh of the bodies contained in them.

The apar (_Tolypeutes tricinctus_) typifies a genus in which the teeth are 9/9 or 8/9, and are rather large in proportion to the size of the skull, with the hinder end of the series reaching nearly to the posterior margin of the palate. Vertebrae: C 7, D 11, L 3, S 12, Ca 13. Ears placed low on the sides of the head, rather large, broadly ovate. Armour with its scapular and pelvic shields very free at the sides of the body, forming large chambers into which the limbs can be readily withdrawn, and only three movable bands. Tail short, conical, covered with large bony tubercles. The fore-feet formed on the same type as in the last genus, but the peculiarities carried to a still greater extent. The claw of the third toe is very long, while those of the first and fifth are greatly reduced and sometimes wanting. On the hind-foot the three middle toes have broad, flat, subequal nails, forming together a kind of tripartite hoof; the first and fifth much shorter, with more compressed nails.

The armadillos of this genus have the power of rolling themselves up into a ball, the shield on the top of the head and the tuberculated dorsal surface of the tail exactly fitting into and filling up the apertures left by the notches at either end of the body-armour. This appears to be their usual means of defence when frightened or surprised, as they do not burrow like the other species. They run very quickly, with a very peculiar gait, only the tips of the claws of the fore-feet touching the ground. In addition to the apar, there are the Argentine and Bolivian _T. conurus_, and _T. muriei_ from Argentina or Patagonia.

The last group of existing armadillos forms the genus _Tatusia_ and the subfamily _Tatusiinae_; the subfamily rank being based on the fact that of the seven or eight pairs of small subcylindrical teeth, all but the last, which is considerably smaller than the rest, are preceded by milk-teeth not changed until the animal has nearly attained full size. Vertebrae: C 7, D 9-11, L 5, S 8, Ca 20-27. Head narrow, with a long, narrow, subcylindrical obliquely truncated snout. Ears rather large, ovate and erect, placed close together on the occiput. Armour with seven to nine distinct movable bands. Body generally elongated and narrow. Tail moderate, or long, gradually tapering; its plates forming distinct rings for the greater part of its length. Fore-feet with four visible toes, and a concealed clawless rudiment of the fifth; the claws long, slightly curved, and slender, the third and fourth subequal and alike, the first and fourth much shorter. Hind-feet with five toes, armed with strong, slightly curved, conical, obtusely pointed nails, and the third longest, then the second and fourth, and the first and fifth much shorter than the others. This genus differs from all the other armadillos in having a pair of inguinal teats in addition to the usual pectoral pair, and in producing a large number (4 to 10) of young at a birth, all the others having usually but one or two. The peba armadillo, _T. septemcincta_, is a well-known species, having an extensive range from Texas to Paraguay. It is replaced in the more southern regions of South America by a smaller species, with shorter tail, the mulita (_T. hybrida_) so called from the resemblance of its head and ears to those of a mule. _T. kappleri_ is a large species from Guiana.

Finally we have the pichiciago, or fairy armadillo, _Chlamydophorus truncatus_, typifying the subfamily _Chlamydophorinae_. In most anatomical characters, especially the structure of the fore-foot, this group resembles the _Dasypodinae_, but it differs remarkably from all other known armadillos, living or extinct, in the peculiar modification of the armour.

The teeth, which number 8/(8-9), are subcylindrical, somewhat compressed, moderate in size, and smaller at each end (especially in front) than at the middle of the series. Skull broad and rounded behind, pointed in front. Muzzle subcylindrical and depressed. A conspicuous rounded rough prominence on the frontal bone, just before each orbit. Tympanic prolonged into a tubular auditory meatus, curving upwards round the base of the zygoma. Vertebrae: C 7, D 11, L 3, S 10, Ca 15. Upper part of head and trunk covered with four-sided horny plates (with small thin ossifications beneath), forming a shield, free and overhanging the sides of the trunk, and attached only along the middle line of the back. The plates are arranged in a series of distinct transverse bands, about twenty in number between the occiput and the posterior truncated end, and not divided into solid scapular and pelvic shields with movable bands between. The hinder end of the body is abruptly truncated and covered by a vertically placed, strong, solid, bony shield, of an oval (transversely extended) form, covered by thin horny plates. This shield is firmly welded by five bony processes to the hinder part of the pelvis. Through a notch in the middle of its lower border the tail passes out. The latter is rather short, cylindrical in its proximal half, and expanded and depressed or spatulate in its terminal portion, and covered with horny plates. The dorsal surfaces of the fore and hind-feet are also covered with horny plates. The remainder of the limbs and under surface and sides of the body beneath the overlapping lateral parts of the back shield are clothed with rather long, soft silky hair. Eyes and ears very small, and concealed by the hair. Extremities short. Feet large, each with five well-developed claws, those on the fore-feet very long, stout and subcompressed, the structure of the digits being essentially the same as those of _Tatoua_ and _Priodon_. Teats two, pectoral. Visceral anatomy closely resembling that of _Dasypus_, the caecum being broad, short and bifid. The pichiciago, a burrowing animal, about 5 in. long, inhabits the sandy plains of western Argentina, especially the vicinity of Mendoza. Its horny covering is pinkish, and its silky hair white. A second species, _C. retusus_, from Bolivia is rather larger and has the dorsal shield attached to the skin of the back as far as its edge, instead of only along the median line. (See ARMADILLO.)

_Tubulidentata._--The second suborder of edentates, namely the Tubulidentata, is represented at the present day only by the aard-varks, or ant-bears, of Africa, constituting the family _Orycteropodidae_ and the genus _Orycteropus_. Together with the following group, they differ from the Xenarthra in the absence of additional articular facets to the lumbar vertebrae; for which reason the term Nomarthra has been proposed for the Tubulidentata and Pholidota as collectively distinct from the Xenarthra. In the present group the external surface is scantily covered with bristle-like hairs. The teeth are numerous, and traversed by a number of parallel vertical pulp-canals. Femur with a third trochanter. Fore-feet without the first toe, but all the other digits well developed, with strong moderate-sized nails, suited to digging, the plantar surfaces of which rest on the ground in walking. Hind-feet with five subequal toes. Placenta broadly zonular. The brain is very like that of the Ungulata; and there are two pairs of teats, one abdominal, and the other inguinal. Aard-varks feed on animal substances; and are terrestrial and fossorial in habits. The total number of teeth is from eight to ten in each side of the upper, and eight in the lower jaw; but they are never all in place at one time, as the small anterior ones are shed before the series is completed behind. In the adult they number usually five on each side above and below, of which the first two are simple and compressed, the next two larger and longitudinally grooved at the sides, the most posterior simple and cylindrical. Their summits are rounded before they are worn; their bases do not taper to a root, but are evenly truncated and continually growing. Each tooth is made up of an aggregation of parallel dental systems, having a slender pulp cavity in the centre, from which the dentinal tubes radiate outwards, and being closely packed together each system assumes a polygonal outline as seen in transverse section. A series of milk-teeth is developed. Skull moderately elongated with the facial portion subcylindrical and slightly tapering, and the zygoma complete and slender. The palate ends posteriorly in the thickened transverse border of the palatines, and is not continued back by the pterygoids. The tympanic is annular, and not welded to the surrounding bones. The lower jaw is slender anteriorly, but rises high posteriorly, with a slender recurved coronoid, and an ascending pointed process on the hinder edge below the condyle, which is small, oval, and looks forward as much as upwards. Vertebrae: C 7, D 13, L 8, S 6, Ca 25. The large number of lumbar vertebrae is peculiar among Edentates. The tongue is less worm-like than in _Myrmecophaga_, being thick and fleshy at the base and gradually tapering to the apex. The salivary apparatus is developed much in the same manner as in that genus, but the duct of the submaxillary gland has no reservoir. The stomach consists of a large subglobular cardaic portion, with a thick, soft, and corrugated lining membrane, and a smaller muscular, pyloric part, with a comparatively thin and smooth lining. There is a distinct ileocaecal valve and a considerable sized caecum; also a gall-bladder. Head elongated, with a tubular snout, terminal nostrils and small mouth-opening. Ears large, pointed, erect. Tall nearly as long as the body, cylindrical, thick at the base, tapering to the extremity.

According to the researches of Dr E. Lonnberg, the teeth of the aard-varks correspond only to the roots of those of other mammals, the crowns being unrepresented, except to a very small degree when the teeth first cut the gum. This explanation renders the peculiar internal structure of these teeth much less difficult to understand than if they represented both crown and root. In Dr Lonnberg's opinion, the teeth indicate the descent of the aard-vark from an ungulate stock,--a view in harmony with the evidence of the brain. If this idea prove well founded, and if the aard-varks are rightly classed with the Edentata, the whole order must apparently be regarded as an offshoot from primitive Ungulata. The fact of the frequent distinctness of the coracoid bone requires, however, explanation in connexion with such a descent (see AARD-VARK).

_Pholidota._--The Pholidota, constituting the third and last group of the Edentata, are represented by the pangolins, or scaly anteaters, of Asia and Africa, all of which are included in the family _Manidae_ and the genus _Manis_. Pangolins differ from all other mammals by the armour of overlapping horny scales (often with hairs growing between them) which invests the whole animal, with the exception of the under surface of the body, and sometimes a small patch near the tip of the under side of the tail. There are no teeth; and although the tongue is long and worm-like, it is not extensile. The scaphoid and lunar bones of the carpus are united. The uterus is bicornuate, and the placenta diffused and non-deciduate. The skull has somewhat the form of an elongated cone, with the small end turned forwards, and is smooth and free from crests and ridges. No distinction between the orbits and temporal fossae. The zygomatic arch usually incomplete, owing to the absence of the jugal bone; no distinct lacrymal bone; and the palate long and narrow. The pterygoids extend backwards as far as the tympanics, but do not meet in the middle line below. Tympanic welded to the surrounding bones, and more or less bladder-like, but not produced into a tubular auditory meatus. Two halves of lower jaw very slender and straight, without any angle or coronoid process, on the anterior extremity of the upper edge a sharp, conical, tooth-like process projecting upwards and outwards. No clavicles. No third trochanter to the femur. Terminal phalanges cleft at the tip. Caudal vertebrae with very long transverse processes and numerous chevron-bones. Stomach with thick muscular walls and lining membrane, and a special gland near the middle of the great curvature, consisting of a mass of complex secreting follicles, the ducts of which terminate in a common orifice. No caecum, but a gall-bladder. Head small, depressed, narrow, and pointed in front, with a very small mouth-opening. Eyes and ears very small. Body elongated, narrow. Tail more or less elongated, convex above, flat underneath. Limbs short, and in walking the surface and outer sides of the phalanges of the two outer digits of the front feet alone rest on the ground, with the points of the nails turning upwards and inwards. The third toe the longest, with a powerful compressed curved claw, the second and fourth with similar but smaller claws, but that of the first toe often almost rudimentary. Hind-feet plantigrade with the first toe very short, and the four other toes subequal, and carrying moderate, curved, compressed nails. Pangolins are of small or moderate size, terrestrial and burrowing, and feed mainly on termites or white ants; some of the species being more or less arboreal. They can roll themselves up in a ball when in danger. Their peculiar elongated form, short limbs, long tapering tail, and scaly covering give them on a superficial inspection more the appearance of reptiles than of mammals. The species are not numerous and may be divided into two sections, one comprising the Asiatic species, such as _M. javanica_, _M. aurita_ of China, and the Indian _M. pentadactyla_, and the other the African, as represented by the large _M. gigantea_, _M. temminchi_, the long-tailed _M. macrura_, and the small arboreal _M. tricuspis_. In the Asiatic group the middle series of scales continues to the tip of the tail; but in the African forms this row splits into two a few inches from the tail-tip. The latter have also no hairs between the scales and no external ears. The climbing species have a small bare patch on the under side of the tail near the tip (see PANGOLIN).

_Extinct Edentates._

Beyond remains of species closely allied to or identical with the existing forms, the sloths and anteaters appear to be unknown in a fossil state. On the other hand the extinct family of ground sloths, or _Megatheriidae_, which includes the largest of all edentates, is an exceedingly large one, and extends in South America from the Miocene to the Pleistocene, and was also represented during the latter epoch in North America. It serves to connect the _Bradypodidae_ with _Myrmecophagidae_. The alleged occurrence of an allied form in Madagascar is somewhat doubtful (see MEGATHERIUM and MYLODON).

Of _Dasypodidae_ numerous representatives occur in the South American Tertiaries. From the higher beds many of the species are referable to existing genera, such as _Dasypus_ and _Tatusia_, although some are much larger than any living forms, the skull in one case being nearly a foot in length. In other instances, when lower formations are reached, the genera are also distinct, _Eutatus_ having the whole armour divided into movable bands, and the allied _Stegotherium_ representing the group in the Santa Cruz formation of Patagonia. Even in the Argentine Pleistocene there is an extinct genus, _Chlamydotherium_, represented by a species of the size of a rhinoceros, with grooved teeth approximating to those of the glyptodonts. The latter represent a family (_Glyptodontidae_) by themselves, and typically may be described as giant solid-shelled armadillos, although some of their smaller Santa Cruz representatives (_Propalaeohoplophorus_) approximate in some degree to true armadillos (see GLYPTODON).

A very remarkable Santa Cruz armadillo, _Peltephilus_, has an altogether peculiar type of head-shield, developed into horns in front of the eyes; and, what is still more noteworthy, teeth in the front of the jaws, thereby rendering the ordinary definition of the order Edentata incorrect. It has been made the type of a distinct family, _Peltephilidae_.

The past history of the armadillo group does not, however, by any means end here. True armadillos, it should be observed, are known in North America as far north as Texas, from the Pleistocene onwards; but in formations of middle Tertiary age are unrepresented. Recent discoveries apparently indicate, however, the occurrence of armadillos of a primitive type in the lower Tertiary or Eocene formations of Wyoming. The first evidence of these Eocene armadillos was afforded by portions of the jaws, which, together with a leg-bone of a totally different animal, were believed to indicate creatures nearly allied to the aye-aye (_Chiromys_) of Madagascar, and for which the name _Metachiromys_ was consequently proposed. According to modern usage, this name, in spite of its inappropriate nature, is retained for the armadillos, although in the writer's opinion it ought to be replaced. According to Professor H.F. Osborn, by whom their remains have been described, the North American fossil armadillos were closely related to the existing members of the group, from which they differ chiefly by the armour, or shield, having probably been formed of tough leathery skin instead of bony plates, by the presence of a single pair of large enamel-capped tusk-like teeth in each jaw, and by the degeneration of the other teeth. If these determinations are trustworthy, the question arises whether we should regard the armadillos of South America as the descendants of North American forms which migrated southwards before that separation of the two continents was established, which lasted for a large portion of the Tertiary period, or whether a migration took place at the same early epoch in the opposite direction.

More interesting still is the occurrence of remains of reputed armadillos (_Necrodasypus_) from the Oligocene of France and Germany. In the opinion of Dr F. Ameghino these Oligocene armadillos, which had bony shields on both the head and body, were near akin to some of the modern South American forms.

Passing on to the aard-varks (_Orycteropodidae_), we find these represented by a species closely allied to the existing ones in the Lower Pliocene formations of Spain, France, Hungary, Samos and Asia Minor. A single tibia from the French Oligocene is identified by Dr Ameghino with the present family, and the genus _Archaeorycteropus_ established for its reception; this genus, in its founder's opinion, being also represented in the Santa Cruz beds of Patagonia. As regards the pangolins, the only fossils referred to this group (apart from a few discovered in a cave in India) appear to be certain limb-bones from the Oligocene of France and Germany, for which the names _Necromanis_ and _Teutomanis_ have been proposed. The occurrence of the characteristic cleft terminal toe-bones among these remains seems to leave little doubt as to the correctness of the determination.

The alleged occurrence of remains of giant pangolins in the upper Tertiary of Europe is due to misidentification (see ANCYLOPODA). By some authorities the Eocene group of Ganodonta has been affiliated to the Edentata, but this reference is not accepted by Prof. W.B. Scott.

AUTHORITIES.--The above article is to some extent based on the
articles by Sir W.H. Flower in the 9th edition of this work. See also
O. Thomas, "A Milk-dentition in _Orycteropus_," _Proc. Royal Soc._
vol. xlvii. (1890); R. Lydekker, "The Extinct Edentates of Argentina,"
_Palaeont. Argentina_, vol. iii., An. Mus. (La Plata, 1894); C.W.
Andrews, "On a Skull of _Orycteropus gaudryi_ from Samos," _Proc.
Zool. Soc. London_ (1896); G.E. Smith, "The Brain in the Edentata,"
_Trans. Linn. Soc. London_, vol. vii. (1899); W.B. Scott, "Mammalia of
the Santa Cruz Beds--_Dasypoda_," _Rep. Princeton Exped. to
Patagonia_, vol. v. (1903); H.F. Osborn, "An Armadillo from the Middle
Eocene of North America," _Bull. Amer. Mus._ vol. xx. art. 12 (1904);
J.A. Allen, "The Tamandua Anteaters," _T.C._, art. 33 (1904); F.
Ameghino, "Les Edentes fossiles de France et d'Allemagne," _Ann. Mus.
Buenos Aires_, vol. xiii. (1905); E. Lonnberg, "On a new
_Orycteropus_," and "Remarks on the dentition of the Tubulidentata,"
_Archiv fur Zoologie_, vol. iii. No. 3 (1906). (R. L.*)

EDENTON, a town and the county-seat of Chowan county, North Carolina, U.S.A., on Edenton Bay, an estuary of Albemarle sound, near the mouth of Chowan river, in the N.E. part of the state. Pop. (1890) 2205; (1900) 3046 (2090 negroes); (1910) 2789. It is served by the Norfolk & Southern railway, and by the Albemarle Steam Navigation Co. In 1907 the former projected a great bridge across Albemarle sound near the city. Edenton is an old and interesting town, has a number of fine old homesteads, and has broad and well-shaded streets. Lumbering and the shad and herring fisheries are the most important industrial interests, and the town is a shipping point for fish, truck and other farm products, cotton and peanuts. There is a Fish Cultural Station here, established by the Federal government. The court-house was built about 1750.

Edenton was settled about 1658, and was for some time known as the "Towne on Queen Anne's Creek" or the "Port of Roanoke"; in 1722 the present name was adopted in honour of Governor Charles Eden (1673-1722), whose grave is in St Paul's churchyard here. Throughout the 18th century Edenton was a place of considerable social and political importance; the legislative assembly of North Carolina met here occasionally, and here lived the royal governors and various well-known citizens of the province, among them: Joseph Hewes (1730-1779), a signer of the Declaration of Independence; James Iredell, Sr. (1750-1799), a Federalist leader and after 1790 a justice of the United States Supreme Court, and his son James Iredell, Jr. (1788-1853), a prominent lawyer, for many years a member of the state legislature, governor of North Carolina in 1827-1828, and a member of the United States Senate in 1828-1831. Near Edenton lived Samuel Johnston (1733-1816), a prominent leader of the American Whigs preceding and during the War of American Independence, a member of the Continental Congress in 1780-1782, governor of North Carolina in 1787-1789, and a Federalist member of the United States Senate in 1790-1793. In 1907 the Hewes, Iredell and Johnston homesteads were still standing. In a house facing the court-house green the famous "Edenton Tea Party" of fifty-one ladies met on the 24th of October 1774 and signed resolutions that they would not conform "to that Pernicious Custom of Drinking Tea" and would not "promote the wear of any manufacture from England" until the tax on tea should be repealed. Near Edenton the Confederate ram "Albemarle," on emerging from the Roanoke river, was met by the Union "double-enders," "Sassacus," "Mattabesett," and "Miami," on the 5th of May 1864; the battle, which resulted in favour of the Confederates, was a duel between the Confederate ironclad and the Union wooden side-wheeler, the "Sassacus," which rammed the "Albemarle" and had her bows, fitted with a three-ton bronze beak, twisted off and carried away.

EDESSA (mod. _Vodena_), the ancient capital of Macedonia, previously known as Aegae, situated 46 m. W. of Thessalonica on the banks of a beautiful stream in the very centre of the kingdom, and at the head of a defile commanding the approaches from the coast to the interior. It was the original residence of the Macedonian kings; and even after the seat of government was removed by Philip II. to the more accessible Pella, it continued to be the burial-place of the royal family. At the celebration of his daughter's marriage here, Philip II. was murdered by Pausanias in 336 B.C. His son Alexander was buried at Memphis through the contrivance of Ptolemy; but the bodies of his granddaughter Eurydice and her husband Arrhidaeus were removed by Cassander to the ancestral sepulchre. On the occupation of the town by Pyrrhus the royal tombs were plundered by the Gallic mercenaries. Owing to its position commanding the Via Egnatia, the town retained its importance during the Roman and Byzantine periods. For its present condition, see VODENA.

EDESSA, the Greek name of an ancient city of N.W. Mesopotamia (in 37 deg. 21' N. lat. and 39 deg. 6' E. long.), suggested perhaps by a comparison of its site, or its water supply,[1] with that of its Macedonian namesake. It still bears its earlier name, modified since the 15th century (by the Turks?) to Urfa.

The oldest certain form is the Aramaic _Urhai_ ("Western"
pronunciation _Urhoi_), which appears in Greek as an adjective as
[Greek: Horrhoenhe][2], [Greek: -noi][3] (perhaps also as a fortress
with spring, as [Greek: Orrha]),[4] and in Latin as Orr(h)ei,[5] and
(in the inscription on Abgar's grave) _Orrhenoru(m)_.[6] The Syriac
Chronicle ascribed to Dionysius of Tell-mahre derives the name from a
first king Urhai, son of Hewya, whom Procopius (_De bello persico_, i.
17) calls Osroes (cf. below), connected by Bayer[7] with Chosroes,[8]
from which G. Hoffmann would also derive the Syriac Urhai (_Z.D.M.G._
xxxii. 742). The Syriac town name has, however, the form of an ethnic,
and we may therefore with Duval leave it unexplained (_Hist._ 22). The
fact that the Arabic name is Ruha supports the hint of the
Graeco-Latin forms that there was a vowel between the R and the H.
There is little plausibility in the suggestion of Assemani and others
that Ruha comes from [Greek: rhoe] of Callirrhoe. A gentilic of the
form Ru-u-ai occurs in a letter (of an Assyrian king?) to chiefs in a
(Babylonian?) town as the designation of three captives (Harper, _Ass.
and Bab. Letters_, No. 287 [= K 94], line 6; cf. Bezold, _Die
Achamenideninschriften_, p. xii.), who have Semitic names; and
Ru-'-u-a is the name of an Aramaic people mentioned with other
Aramaeans by Tiglath-pileser IV., Sargon and Sennacherib. It is not
impossible that some such people may have settled at Urhai and given
it their name, although the Ru-'-u-a are always mentioned in
connexions that imply seats near the Persian Gulf.[9] The district
name Osroene for [Greek: Orrhoenhe], is Greek, perhaps due to analogy
of Chosroes. It occurs but rarely in Syriac (Uzroina); e.g. Chronicle
of Edessa. S 35;[10] elsewhere Beth-Urhaye (e.g. Cureton, _Spicileg.
Syr._ 20). In the time of Tiglath-pileser I. (c. 1100 B.C.) the name
seems to have been "District of (not Edessa, but) Harran" (Annals, vi.
71). The Arabs pronounced the name er-Ruha (see above), and that form
prevailed till it gave place to Urfa in the 15th century.

The Greek name Edessa appears in the Jerusalem Targum to Gen. x. 10 as
Hadas ([Hebrew: hadas], myrtle); it has been proposed (cf. Duval,
_Hist. d'Edesse_, 23) to derive Edessa from Aram. [Hebrew: hadat], as
though = Carthage, New Town; but Syriac writers, when they
occasionally [11] use the name (Edessa, [Hebrew: adasa]; so Yaqut,
Adasa), show no suspicion of its being Semitic. According to Pliny, v.
86, Edessa was also called Antioch, and coins of Antiochus IV.
Epiphanes with the legend "Antioch on the Callirrhoe" may imply that
he rebuilt and renamed the place (so Ed. Meyer in Pauly-Wissowa,
_Realencyclopadie_, col. 1933, 66; otherwise Duval, _Hist._ 23; cf.
art. OSROENE). Pliny indeed seems to call the city itself Callirrhoe,
and S. Funk finds it so named in the Talmud (_Bab. Mez._, 18a [Hebrew:
raal raham bahara shuiar meta]: _Die Juden in Babylonien 200-500_, ii.
148; 1908); but K. Regling (_Klio_, i. 459 n. 1) may be right in his
emendation which applies the title in Pliny to the sacred spring.

_History: Pre-Hellenistic._--Until excavation gives us more definite data we can only infer from its position on one of the main thoroughfares between the Mediterranean and the East (see MESOPOTAMIA) that Urhai-Edessa, possibly bearing some other name, was already a town of some importance in the early Babylonian-Assyrian age. Whatever may have been the ethnographical type of the early inhabitants, it must by the beginning of the second last millennium B.C. have included Hittites in the large sense of the term, probably Aryans, and certainly Semites of some of the types characteristic of early Assyrian history. Most probably its people belonged to the domain of the then more famous Harran-Carrhae, between which and Samosata (on the Euphrates) Urhai lies midway (some 25-30 m. distant from each) in the district watered by the Balih. Although at Edessa itself no cuneiform documents have yet been found, a little more than four hours journey eastwards, at Anaz (= Gullab?) = Dur of Tiglath-pileser IV. was found in 1901 a slab with a bas-relief and an inscription; and 15-20 min. W. of Eski-Harran, in 1906 a very interesting 6th-century Assyrian inscription (see MESOPOTAMIA).

In the later Assyrian empire the population was largely Aramaic-speaking; but S. Schiffer's theory (Beiheft I. zur _Orientalistischen Litteratur-Zeitung_) finds contemporary evidence of Israelites settled in the neighbourhood of Edessa in the second half of the 7th century B.C. At the fall of Nineveh many towns in Mesopotamia suffered severely at the hands of the Medes. The period remains dark, notwithstanding the obscure light that has been thrown on it lately (Pognon, _Inscriptions_). When Aramaic began to take the place of Assyrian in written documents is not known; but just across the Euphrates the change had occurred as early as the 8th century B.C. (Zengirli, Hamath; see also Pognon). Certain it is that the earliest documents that have survived in Syriac, or Edessene Aramaic, do not represent an experimental stage. Moreover, although the Syriac of the Story of Ahiqar is of a late type, the sources of the story, traces of which are to be found in the Hebrew Tobit (q.v.), go back to the pre-Hellenistic period.

_Graeco-Roman Times._--According to a credible tradition found in Eusebius (_Excerpta_, 179), the Syriac Chronicle ascribed to Dionysius of Tell-mahre (Tullberg, 61), and elsewhere, Urhai was renovated, like other Mesopotamian sites, in 304 B.C. by Seleucus I. Nicator, who gave it its Greek name.[12] It would share in the Hellenistic culture of Syria, although the language of the common people would continue to be Aramaic (E.R. Bevan, _House of Seleucus_, i. 227 f. with reff.). With the decay of the Seleucid power, weakened by Rome and Parthia, the old influx from the desert would recommence, and an Arabic element begin to show. Von Gutschmid (_Untersuch._, cf. Duval, ch. iii. end) argues plausibly that it was in 132 B.C., in the reign of Antiochus VII. Sidetes, that Edessa became the seat of a dynasty of some thirty local kings, whose succession has been preserved in native sources. The name of the first king, however, appears in different forms (cf. above), and one (Osroes-Orhai) is so like that of the town that Ed. Meyer suspects the historicity of the first reign, of five years. The names of the other kings--Abgar, Ma'nu, Bekr, &c.--are for the most part Arabic, as the people (in whose inscriptions the same mixture of names occurs) are called by classical authors; but the rulers, among whom an occasional Iranian name betrays the influence of the dominant Parthians,[13] would hardly maintain their distinctness from the Aramaic populace. This state which lasted for three centuries and a half, naturally varied in extent.[14] Bounded on the W. and the N. by the Euphrates, it reached at its widest as far as the Tigris. At such times, therefore, it included such towns as Harran (Carrhae), Nisibis, Sarug, Zeugma-Birejik, Resaena, Singara, Tigranocerta, Samosata, Melitene. Its position "on the dangerous verge of two contending empires," Parthia and Rome, determined its changeful fortunes. Parthian predominance yielded for a time to Armenian (Tigranes, 88-86 B.C.). Then, at the time of the expeditions of Lucullus, Pompey and Crassus, Edessa was an ally of Rome, though Abgar II. Ariamnes (68-53) played an ambiguous part. In A.D. 114 Abgar VII. entertained Trajan on his way back to Syria (Dio Cass. xviii. 21); but in 116, in consequence of a general rising, his consul L. Quietus sacked the city, Abgar perhaps dying in the flames, and made the state tributary. Hadrian, however, abandoning Trajan's forward policy in favour of a Euphrates boundary, restored it as a dependency of Rome. When L. Verus (163-165) recovered Mesopotamia from Parthia, it was not Edessa but Harran that was chosen as the site of a Roman colony, and made the metropolis by Marcus Aurelius (172).

To one of the native kings doubtless is to be ascribed the Syriac inscription[15] on one of the pair of pillars, 50 ft. high, which stood, no doubt, in front of a temple connected with some local cult. Trustworthy data for determining its nature are lacking. One or both of the pools below the citadel containing sacred fish may have been sacred to Atargatis (q.v.), an Ishtar-Venus deity; and according to the _Doctrine of Addai_, alongside of Venus were worshipped the sun and the moon.[16] Nergal and Sin were known as "twins," and connected with the sign Gemini, under the name _ellamme_, "the youths" (cf. Zimmern, _K.A.T._ 363). This makes more plausible than it otherwise would be the suggestion of J. Rendel Harris that the great twin pillars were connected with the cult of the Dioscuri, and that in the Acts of Thomas is to be seen a later attempt to substitute other "twins," viz. Jesus and Judas-Thomas (Addai), whom legend buried "in Britio Edessenorum" (explained by Harnack as the Edessan citadel: Aram. _birtha_).[17]

Whether it was at Edessa that a Jewish translation of the Old Testament into Syriac was made,[18] under the encouragement perhaps of the favour of the royal house of Adiabene (Josephus, _Bell. Jud._ ii. 19. 4), or whether that work was done _in_ Adiabene,[19] cannot be discussed here. That the translation did not share the fate of the other non-Christian Syriac writings, which did not survive the 13th century (see SYRIAC LITERATURE), is due to the fact that it was adopted (after being revised) by the Christians, and thus rescued. Although the beginnings of Christianity at Edessa are enshrouded in the mists of legend, and the first mention of Christian communities in Osrhoene and the towns there is connected with the part they played in the paschal controversy (c. A.D. 192), it has been reasonably urged that the legends imply a fact, namely that Christianity began in the Jewish colony, perhaps by the middle of the 2nd century, although the earliest seat of the Syrian church may have been farther east, in Adiabene.[20] Parts of the New Testament were certainly translated into Syriac in the 2nd century, although whether the "Old Syriac" (so e.g. Hjelt) or the Diatessaron (so Burkitt) came first is uncertain. About the end of the 2nd century Edessene Christianity seems to have made a fresh beginning: the ordination of Palut by Serapion of Antioch may mean that things ecclesiastical took a westward trend, and it is possible (so Burkitt) that the "Old Syriac" New Testament version was now introduced. A strong man offered himself in Bardaisan (q.v.; Bardesanes), to whom perhaps we owe the finest Syriac poem extant, the "Hymn of the Soul," though orthodoxy rejected him. He was a contemporary of Abgar IX., at whose court Julius Africanus stayed for a while. A Syrian official record from this reign, preserved in the _Edessene Chronicle_, gives a somewhat detailed account of a violent flood (autumn, 201) of the Daisan river which did much damage, destroying amongst other things "the palace of Abgar the Great," rebuilt as a summer palace by Abgar IX., and "the temple of the church of the Christians." The form of this last statement shows that at the time of writing (206) the rulers had not adopted Christianity themselves. Abgar IX. is now commonly supposed to be the ruler to whom the famous legend was first attached (see ABGAR); but though he visited Rome there is no proof that he ever became a Christian (Gomperz, in _Archaologisch-epigraphische Mitteilungen aus Osterreich-Ungarn_, xix. 154-157). It was at Edessa that Caracalla, who made it a military colony under the style of Colonia Marcia Edessenorum, spent the winter of 216-217, and near there that he was murdered. The religious philosophical treatise preserved under the title of _Book of the Laws of the Lands_ was probably produced at this time by a pupil of Bardesanes, and the _Acts of Thomas_ in its original form may have followed not long after.