Of these American forms, which will be treated of first, the Armadillos are further apart from either Sloths or Anteaters than the last two are from each other. The name Xenarthra has been suggested for the American Edentates with "abnormal" vertebral articulations; the corresponding Nomarthra includes the Old-World forms.
Fig. 90.—Right scapula and clavicle of Two-toed Sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni). × 1⅔. a, Acromion; af, prescapular fossa; c, coracoid; cl, clavicle; csf, coraco-scapular foramen; gc, glenoid cavity; pf, postscapular fossa. (From Flower's Osteology.)
Between the Sloths and Anteaters the extinct Megatherium and some of its allies are to a certain extent intermediate. But it may be pointed out in the first place that there are certain important resemblances between the living forms. In both, retia mirabilia are developed in the tail (in spite of its reduction in the Sloths) and in the limbs. But, as is well known, retia are also found in other mammals far removed in the series from these under consideration. The reproductive organs generally are very similar, and they have both a dome-shaped and deciduate placenta. The latter character they share with the Armadillos and with the Aard Vark; Manis having a non-deciduate placenta which is, like that of the Carnivora, zonary in form. The Edentates, at any rate the American forms, have a double vena cava posterior and no azygos vein. This condition is also met with among Whales.
Osteologically the Sloths and Anteaters are united by the fact that the coracoid becomes fused with the coracoid border of the scapula, thus forming a foramen; the importance of this character is, however, discounted by its occurrence in three genera of Cebidae.
The above facts embody the views of Sir William Flower.[[95]]
A subsequent study of the brain and of the muscles of these animals has led to results not entirely in harmony with these views.
Dr. Elliot Smith is of opinion,[[96]] after an exhaustive study of the Edentate brain, that in this region of the body the present group shows very decided points of likeness to the Carnivora; that is, so far as concerns the Anteaters. On the other hand, Orycteropus is as distinctly comparable with a primitive Ungulate type, such as is exemplified by Moschus. "If the brain of Orycteropus," he remarks, "were given to an anatomist acquainted with all the other variations of the mammalian type of brain, there is probably only one feature which would lead him to hesitate in describing it as an exceedingly simple Ungulate brain. That one feature is the high degree of macrosmatism.[[97]] Manis, on the other hand, does not come especially near to Orycteropus. The brain of Manis conforms to a simple type of architecture, which agrees in many points with both those of Orycteropus and the American Edentates; there is not sufficient evidence to show which type it really favours." Elliot Smith would, in fact, agree with Max Weber that it is better, if a division is to be made, to divide the group into three orders:—the Xenarthra (Sloths, Anteaters, and Armadillos), Tubulidentata (Orycteropus), and Squamata (Manis), instead of into Xenarthra and Nomarthra.
Messrs. Windle and Parsons[[98]] are disposed to see in muscular similarities reasons for uniting Manis with the American Edentates, though they confess to being unable to place Orycteropus; in this animal, they say, "we are more struck by the generalised mammalian arrangement of its muscles than by any special Edentate characters. There are, however, two muscles in Orycteropus which show peculiarities not found elsewhere than in the Edentates";—the triceps, which has more than one scapular head, and the tibialis posticus, which is double. They conclude that Orycteropus "presents some feeble claims to be taken into the order."