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Show 1899.] NEOMYLODON LISTAI FROM PATAGONIA. 155 occurrence of a human mummy of an extinct race in another cavern in the same district. The presence of an abundant covering of dried serum on one cut border of the skin is alone suggestive of grave doubts as to the antiquity of the specimen; but Dr. Vaughan Harley tells me that similar dried serum has been observed several times among the remains of the Egyptian mummies, and there seems thus to be no limit to the length of time for Avhich it can be preserved, provided it is removed from all contact with moisture. I may add that I have searched in vain in the writings of Ramon Lista (so far as they are represented in the Library of the Royal Geographical Society)for some reference to the statement which the late traveller made verbally to Dr. Ameghino ; and as the piece of skin now described certainly represents an animal almost gigantic in size compared with the Old-World Pangolin, I fear it cannot be claimed to belong to Lista's problematical quadruped, whatever that may prove to be. The final result of these brief considerations is therefore rather disappointing. There are difficulties in either of the two possible hypotheses. W e have a piece of skin quite large enough to have belonged to the extinct Mylodon; but uufortunately it cannot be directly compared with the dermal armour of that genus, because it seems to belong to the neck-region, while the only dermal tubercles of a Mylodont hitherto definitely made known are referable to the lumbar region. If it does belong to Mylodon, as Dr. Moreno maintains, it implies either that this genus survived iu Patagonia to a comparatively recent date, or that the circumstances of preservation Avere unique in the cavern where the specimen was discovered. On the other hand, if it belongs to a distinct and existing genus, as Dr. Ameghino maintains-and as most of the characters of the specimen itself Avould at first sight suggest-it is indeed strange that so large and remarkable a quadruped should have hitherto escaped detection in a country which has been so frequently visited by scientific explorers. [P.S.-At the reading of this paper Prof. Ray Lankester remarked that he should regard the characters of the hair as specially important, and would not be surprised if the problematical piece of skin proved to belong to an unknown type of Armadillo. This possibility had occurred to me, but I had hesitated to mention it on account of the considerable discrepancy observable between the arrangement of the bony armour in Neomylodon and that in the known Glyptodonts and the unique Brazilian Armadillo (Scleropleura), Avhich happen to exhibit an incompletely developed (incipient or vestigial) shield. In each of the latter cases, the armour is not subdivided into a compact mass of irregular ossicles, but consists of well-separated elements which could only become continuous by the addition of a considerable extent of bone round their margins, or by the special development of smaller intervening ossicles. Since the paper was read, I have had the privilege of studying Dr. Einar Lbnnberg's valuable description of the pieces of the |
