On the opposite page an endeavour is made to represent the great animals among the Edentates which inhabited the American plains during the Quaternary epoch (PLATE XXIX).
The order ofEdentates is more particularly characterised by the absence of teeth in the fore part of the mouth.
Glyptodon] The largest of the edentates was the Megatherium, a.
These edentates survived from Tertiary times, and in the warmer stages of the Pleistocene ranged north as far as Ohio and Oregon.
The largest of the edentates was the Megatherium, a.
A division of edentates having the body covered with large, imbricated horny scales.
With them are ancestral forms of Edentates (sloths, etc.
Finally, the Edentates (sloths, anteaters, and armadilloes) are represented in a very primitive form in the early Eocene.
These two ancient creatures differ so much in their anatomy from the American edentates that they are classified by some naturalists in a separate order (Fodentia); and they differ almost as radically from one another.
Two families belong to the Old World, one in the Orient and another in South Africa, but all the other edentatesare American.
The second general group of the Edentates is characterized by the gradual development of a single lateral asymmetrical caecum, in place of the median symmetrical ileo-colic transition found in the forms just considered.
Further in the Manidae among the Edentates there is no caecal pouch, but the intestine at the ileo-colic junction is twisted into a figure 8 and held in this position by the peritoneal connections (Figs.
In respect to the ileo-colic junction the Edentates may be arranged in two groups which offer, within the limited number of existing species, a very complete transitional series.
Defn: A group of African edentates including the aard-vark.
Defn: One of a family of extinct edentates found in America.
Defn: A division of edentates having the body covered with large, imbricated horny scales.
A tribe of edentates comprising the South American ant-eaters.
Defn: Any one of several species of arboreal edentates constituting the family Bradypodidæ, and the suborder Tardigrada.
The humerus in all other Edentates is very strong and has the points for the attachment of muscles much developed, especially in the Armadillos and Megatheriidae.
Most of the other Edentates have a but little modified pes with the normal number of tarsal bones and the complete series of digits.
The Aard Varks are diphyodont, and milk teeth are also known in a species of Dasypus, but with these exceptions Edentates are, as far as is known, monophyodont.
Procavia, many rodents, edentates and Ornithorhynchus is a vestigial tibiale, and that the astragalus is the intermedium.
Aside from marsupials and New World monkeys, its most characteristic animals were edentates and very queer ungulates with no resemblance to those of any other continent.
The edentates not only included various ground-sloths, among them the megatherium, which was the size of an elephant, and the somewhat smaller mylodon, but also creatures as fantastic as those of a nightmare.
The great autochthonous forms shared the extinction of the big creatures of the immigrant fauna; for under stress of competition with the newcomers, the ancient ungulates and edentates had developed giants of their own.
It used to be said that the Edentates were monophyodont.
The name that has been applied to this group is inappropriate {162} inasmuch as many Edentates have teeth.
As in some other Edentates there is a second spine on the scapula behind the first.
It differs from the bulk of the American Edentates in having a complete jugal arch.
Orycteropus is peculiar among Edentates in that the ischia do not unite with the vertebral column.
As already explained, the Old-World Edentates differ from the New-World forms in having normal dorsal vertebrae, that is to say, without additional zygapophyses.
The Armadillos show their alliance with the other American Edentates in the points enumerated above.
It is not possible, however, to speak of the Edentates as quite homodont, since in Orycteropus there are large cheek-teeth; but there is at any rate not a marked heterodonty in that or in any other Edentate.
This result is important as tending further to confirm the close interrelationship of all the American Edentates as contrasted with the Old-World forms--a matter which has already been emphasised.
For the skull of Edentates generally see Parker, Phil.
In view of the possible origin of the Edentates from lowly-organised Mammalia, it is noteworthy that the humerus has been especially compared to that of the Monotreme.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "edentates" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
