More interesting still is the occurrence of remains of reputed armadillos (Necrodasypus) from the Oligocene of France and Germany. In the opinion of Dr F. Ameghino these Oligocene armadillos, which had bony shields on both the head and body, were near akin to some of the modern South American forms.
Passing on to the aard-varks (Orycteropodidae), we find these represented by a species closely allied to the existing ones in the Lower Pliocene formations of Spain, France, Hungary, Samos and Asia Minor. A single tibia from the French Oligocene is identified by Dr Ameghino with the present family, and the genus Archaeorycteropus established for its reception; this genus, in its founder’s opinion, being also represented in the Santa Cruz beds of Patagonia. As regards the pangolins, the only fossils referred to this group (apart from a few discovered in a cave in India) appear to be certain limb-bones from the Oligocene of France and Germany, for which the names Necromanis and Teutomanis have been proposed. The occurrence of the characteristic cleft terminal toe-bones among these remains seems to leave little doubt as to the correctness of the determination.
The alleged occurrence of remains of giant pangolins in the upper Tertiary of Europe is due to misidentification (see [Ancylopoda]). By some authorities the Eocene group of Ganodonta has been affiliated to the Edentata, but this reference is not accepted by Prof. W.B. Scott.
Authorities.—The above article is to some extent based on the articles by Sir W.H. Flower in the 9th edition of this work. See also O. Thomas, “A Milk-dentition in Orycteropus,” Proc. Royal Soc. vol. xlvii. (1890); R. Lydekker, “The Extinct Edentates of Argentina,” Palaeont. Argentina, vol. iii., An. Mus. (La Plata, 1894); C.W. Andrews, “On a Skull of Orycteropus gaudryi from Samos,” Proc. Zool. Soc. London (1896); G.E. Smith, “The Brain in the Edentata,” Trans. Linn. Soc. London, vol. vii. (1899); W.B. Scott, “Mammalia of the Santa Cruz Beds—Dasypoda,” Rep. Princeton Exped. to Patagonia, vol. v. (1903); H.F. Osborn, “An Armadillo from the Middle Eocene of North America,” Bull. Amer. Mus. vol. xx. art. 12 (1904); J.A. Allen, “The Tamandua Anteaters,” T.C., art. 33 (1904); F. Ameghino, “Les Édentes fossiles de France et d’Allemagne,” Ann. Mus. Buenos Aires, vol. xiii. (1905); E. Lönnberg, “On a new Orycteropus,” and “Remarks on the dentition of the Tubulidentata,” Archiv für Zoologie, vol. iii. No. 3 (1906).
(R. L.*)
EDENTON, a town and the county-seat of Chowan county, North Carolina, U.S.A., on Edenton Bay, an estuary of Albemarle sound, near the mouth of Chowan river, in the N.E. part of the state. Pop. (1890) 2205; (1900) 3046 (2090 negroes); (1910) 2789. It is served by the Norfolk & Southern railway, and by the Albemarle Steam Navigation Co. In 1907 the former projected a great bridge across Albemarle sound near the city. Edenton is an old and interesting town, has a number of fine old homesteads, and has broad and well-shaded streets. Lumbering and the shad and herring fisheries are the most important industrial interests, and the town is a shipping point for fish, truck and other farm products, cotton and peanuts. There is a Fish Cultural Station here, established by the Federal government. The court-house was built about 1750.
Edenton was settled about 1658, and was for some time known as the “Towne on Queen Anne’s Creek” or the “Port of Roanoke”; in 1722 the present name was adopted in honour of Governor Charles Eden (1673-1722), whose grave is in St Paul’s churchyard here. Throughout the 18th century Edenton was a place of considerable social and political importance; the legislative assembly of North Carolina met here occasionally, and here lived the royal governors and various well-known citizens of the province, among them: Joseph Hewes (1730-1779), a signer of the Declaration of Independence; James Iredell, Sr. (1750-1799), a Federalist leader and after 1790 a justice of the United States Supreme Court, and his son James Iredell, Jr. (1788-1853), a prominent lawyer, for many years a member of the state legislature, governor of North Carolina in 1827-1828, and a member of the United States Senate in 1828-1831. Near Edenton lived Samuel Johnston (1733-1816), a prominent leader of the American Whigs preceding and during the War of American Independence, a member of the Continental Congress in 1780-1782, governor of North Carolina in 1787-1789, and a Federalist member of the United States Senate in 1790-1793. In 1907 the Hewes, Iredell and Johnston homesteads were still standing. In a house facing the court-house green the famous “Edenton Tea Party” of fifty-one ladies met on the 24th of October 1774 and signed resolutions that they would not conform “to that Pernicious Custom of Drinking Tea” and would not “promote the wear of any manufacture from England” until the tax on tea should be repealed. Near Edenton the Confederate ram “Albemarle,” on emerging from the Roanoke river, was met by the Union “double-enders,” “Sassacus,” “Mattabesett,” and “Miami,” on the 5th of May 1864; the battle, which resulted in favour of the Confederates, was a duel between the Confederate ironclad and the Union wooden side-wheeler, the “Sassacus,” which rammed the “Albemarle” and had her bows, fitted with a three-ton bronze beak, twisted off and carried away.
EDESSA (mod. Vodena), the ancient capital of Macedonia, previously known as Aegae, situated 46 m. W. of Thessalonica on the banks of a beautiful stream in the very centre of the kingdom, and at the head of a defile commanding the approaches from the coast to the interior. It was the original residence of the Macedonian kings; and even after the seat of government was removed by Philip II. to the more accessible Pella, it continued to be the burial-place of the royal family. At the celebration of his daughter’s marriage here, Philip II. was murdered by Pausanias in 336 B.C. His son Alexander was buried at Memphis through the contrivance of Ptolemy; but the bodies of his granddaughter Eurydice and her husband Arrhidaeus were removed by Cassander to the ancestral sepulchre. On the occupation of the town by Pyrrhus the royal tombs were plundered by the Gallic mercenaries. Owing to its position commanding the Via Egnatia, the town retained its importance during the Roman and Byzantine periods. For its present condition, see [Vodena].