European naturalists, however, doubted its existence till the point was settled beyond dispute by the arrival of my specimen, which fortunately was perfect, and in an excellent state of preservation. At the request of the council of the Zoological Society, Mr. Yarrell drew up a particular account of its osteology, which was published in the third volume of their Journal, and from which, with his permission, I extract the following observations upon its comparative anatomy.
"From the representation of the skeleton and its different parts it will be perceived that the chlamyphorus truncatus has points of resemblance to several other quadrupeds, but that it possesses also upon each comparison many others in which it is totally different.
"It resembles the beaver (castor fiber) in the form and substance of some of the bones of the limbs, in the flattened and dilated extremity of the tail, and the elongation of the transverse processes of the lower caudal vertebræ, but no further.
"It has much less resemblance to the mole (talpa Europea) than its external form and subterranean habits would induce us to expect. In the shortness and great strength of the legs, and in the articulation of the claws to the first phalanges of the toes, it is similar; but in the form of the bones of the anterior extremity, as well as in the compressed claws, it is perfectly different; nor do the articulations of the bones, nor the arrangement of the muscles, allow any of the lateral motion so conspicuous in the mole; the hinder extremities of the chlamyphorus are also much more powerful. It resembles the sloth (bradypus tridactylus) in the form of the teeth and in the acute descending process of the zygoma; but here all comparison with the sloth ceases.
"The skeleton of the chlamyphorus will be found to resemble that of the armadillo (dasypi species plures) more than any other known quadruped. In the peculiar ossification of the cervical vertebræ, in possessing the sesamoid bones of the feet, in the general form of all the bones, except those of the pelvis, as well as in the nature of the external covering, they are decidedly similar; they differ, however, in the form and appendages of the head, in the composition and arrangement of the coat of mail, and particularly in the posterior truncated extremity and tail.
"There is a resemblance to be perceived in the form of some of the bones of the chlamyphorus to those of the orycteropus capensis and myrmecophaga jubata, as might be expected in animals belonging to the same order. To the echidna and ornithorhynchus it is also similar in the form of the first bone of the sternum, and in the bony articulations, as well as the dilated connecting plates, of the true and false ribs. It becomes interesting to be able to establish even small points of similarity between the most extraordinary quadrupeds of New Holland and those of South America; that continent producing in the various species of didelphis other resemblances to the marsupiata. In the form of the lower jaw, and in other points equally obvious, the chlamyphorus exhibits characters to be found in some species of ruminantia and pachydermata.
"In conclusion I may remark that in the composition and arrangement of its external covering, and in its very singular truncated extremity, the chlamyphorus is peculiar and unique; and if a conjecture might be hazarded, in the absence of any positive knowledge of the habits of the animal, it is probable that it occasionally assumes an upright position, for which the fattened posterior seems admirably adapted. It is also unique in the form and various appendages of the head, and most particularly in possessing an open pelvis, no instance of which, as far as I am acquainted, has ever as yet occurred in any species of mammalia."
Since Mr. Yarrell's observations Dr. Buckland, in his description of the megatherium, has further pointed out the resemblances of the chlamyphorus to that fossil monster.
