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Show 64 DR. A. SMITH WOODWARD ON REMAINS OF [Jan. 23, 2. On some Remains of Grypotherium (Neomylodon) lislai and associated Mammals from a Cavern near Consuelo Cove, Last Hope Inlet, Patagonia. By A. SMITH WOODWARD, LL.D., F.Z.S. [Received January 23, 1900.] (Plates V.-IX.) Last February, when presenting to this Society an account of the skin of a Ground-Sloth discovered in a cavern in Southern Patagonia, Dr. Moreno mentioned that further excavations were being made in the hope of finding other remains of the same animal (P. Z. S. 1899, p. 148). The task referred to was undertaken by Dr. Rudolph Hauthal, geologist of the L a Plata Museum, who met with complete successl. H e not only found another piece of skin, but also various broken bones of more than one individual of a large species of Ground-Sloth in a remarkably fresh state of preservation. Moreover, he discovered teeth of an extinct horse and portions of limb-bones of a large feline carnivore, in association with these remains ; he likewise met with traces of fire, which clearly occurred in the same deposits as the so-called Neomylodon. All these remains were found beneath the dry earth on the floor of an enormous chamber which seemed to have been artificially enclosed by rude walls. In one spot they were scattered through a thick deposit of excrement of some gigantic herbivore, evidently the Ground-Sloth itself; in another spot they were associated with an extensive accumulation of cut bay. Dr. Hauthal and his colleagues, indeed, concluded that the cavern was an old corral in which the Ground-Sloths had been kept and fed by man. As the result of these explorations, Dr. Moreno has n o w the gratification of exhibiting to the Society complete proof that the piece of skin described on the former occasion belongs to a genuine Pampean Ground-Sloth, not Mylodon itself, but a very closely related genus Grypotherium, of which skulls are already known from Pampean deposits in the Province of Buenos Ayres2. The collection which w e now have the privilege of examining distinctly supports his contention that the large quadruped in question belongs to an extinct fauna, though contemporary with man. Tbe 1 R. Hauthal, S. Roth, and R. Lehinann-Nitsche, " El Mamifero Misterioso de la Patagonia, Grypotherium domesticum," Revista Mus. La Plata, vol. ix. pp. 409-474, pis. i.'-v. (1899).-F. P. Moreno, "Note on the Discovery of Miolania and of Glossotherium (Neomylodon) in Patagonia," Geol M a c ' 141 vol. vi. pp. 385-388 (1899). J 2 J. Reinhardt, " Beskrivelse af Hovedskallen af et Kasrnpedovendyr, Grypotherium darwinii, fra La Plata-Landenes plejstocene Dannelser," K. Dansk. Vidensk. Selsk. Skr. [5] vol. xii. (1879), pp. 353-380, pis i., ii.-H. Burmeister, •Atlas de la Description physique de la Republique Argentine,' sect. ii. (1881), p. 119, woodc. {Mylodon darwinii).-R. Lydekker, "The Extinct Edentates of Argentina," Anales Mus. La Plata-Paleont. Argentina, vol. iii. pt, 2 (1894) p. 85, pi. liv. |
