GROUND-SLOTHS, a family (Mega thernda.) of extinct edentates (Gramgrcuia) re lated to the modern sloths but of terrestrial habits, and in some genera of gigantic size. They are of special interest because some sur vived into the human period. They have a gen eralized structure, exhibiting the head and teeth of a sloth, associated with the vertebra, limbs and tail of an ant-eater. They were chiefly South American, but spread as far north as the western United States in the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs, and did not become extinct until very recent times. Megatherium is the most prominent and familiarly known genus. Its largest species, M. americanuns, almost equaled an elephant in size, but was much longer and lower in stature, owing to the shortness of its extraordinarily heavy limbs; some skeletons exceeds 20 feet in length. The head was very small, especially as to brain-cavity, and the lower jaws projected in a spout-like extension imply ing some kind of proboscis. The tail was thick and heavy and probably useful as an aid to support when the great beast reared up; and the hind feet had two great claws each, which seem to be the only defensive weapon possessed. °The entire structure of the ex tremities," according to Von Zittel, °proves that the gigantic sloth could move over the ground but slowly and clumsily; on the other hand the fore limbs served as grasping organs, and were presumably employed to bend down and break off twigs and branches, and even to uproot whole trees, while the weight of the body was supported on the hind limbs and tail." The skin of the megatheres had no bony armor, and was probably covered with long hair.
The allied genera Lestodon, Mylodon, Glossotherium, Scelidotherium and Megalonyx, were all of smaller size and their members seem to have been very abundant all over South America during the Pleistocene epoch. Megaloc
nus is a genus of a primitive character peculiar to Cuba. The genus Gryptotherium is of pecu liar interest as perhaps the last survivor of the great extinct Pleistocene fauna. The dis covery of part of the hide of one of these ani mals, half buried in dry dust, in a cave at Last Hope Inlet, Patagonia, showed that their skin was thick, studded with small embedded bony nodules, and thickly covered with long, coarse, yellowish-brown hair, as well preserved as are the feathers of the moas in New Zealand. The skin, says the discoverer, Dr. Moreno of Buenos Aires, shows patches of red color, suggesting of course blood-stains; and when small bits were chemically analyzed they yielded serum and the i substances of glue. In view of this it seems impossible to believe that the skin can be of any great age, for bacteria would have finished their work upon the serum and gelatine long ago. An equally fresh-looking skull was found, as if in a small stone enclosure, and wounded in such a way as only man could have inflicted; and there are legends among the Indians that such creatures were known to their ancestors. Dr. Moreno is of the opinion, from evidences found in this cave and elsewhere, that these animals had been domesticated by man, but to what extent and for what purposes is unknown. Consult Scott, 'History of Land Mammals> (New York 1913).
one of the little, bur rowing worm-shaped snakes of the genus Car pkophiops, which abound in tropical America. One species (C. °menus) is numerous under stones and logs in the Southern States, and is glistening chestnut in color above and salmon yellow beneath. A larger, more purplish species (C. vermis) is called in Louisiana. These snakes are perfectly harmless and are the least specialized of the Colubride.