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Terrestrial, partly subterranean, or arboreal creatures of quite small to gigantic size (some extinct genera), with frequently a covering of scales or bony scutes. Limbs clawed. Teeth either totally absent or, if present, imperfect in structure, being without enamel, and not forming a complete series; incisors and canines being as a rule absent. Teats axillary, pectoral, or inguinal. Retia mirabilia very common in the extremities.

To this group the name of Bruta was given by Linnaeus, but then it included not only the families which we now place in the modern order Edentata, but also the Elephant and the genus Trichechus. Mr. Thomas has proposed to change the name into Paratheria, which name is suggestive of what he and some others think concerning the systematic position of the group, i.e. that it is not to be placed in the Eutherian group of mammals at all, but represents a separate twig which has arisen with the Eutheria from a low mammalian stock. This view can hardly be accepted if the Ganodonta—which will be treated of presently—be really ancestral Edentates, for they are not in any way a Prototherian mammalian group, so far as their remains enable us to judge.

The Edentata contain the Sloths, Ant-bears, Armadillos, Manis and Orycteropus, among living forms. The great Ground-Sloths, Megatherium, etc., and Armadillos, Glyptodon, etc., represent the extinct forms.

The name that has been applied to this group is inappropriate