IV.—On the Placentation of the Sloths

Abstract

Comparative Anatomists have long been desirous to obtain detailed information on the Placentation of the Sloths. The only observations on this subject which appear to have been made up to this time have been recorded by Professor Rudolphi of Berlin, and Dr C. G. Carus of Dresden. Rudolphi in the course of some remarks on the structure of the umbilical cord in Bradypus tridactylus incidentally mentions that the placenta was cotyledonary as in the Ruminants. Carus figures the placenta and an almost mature fœtus of a B. tridactylus which came into his possession in 1830. He gives no description, however, of the specimen, but contents himself with a brief explanation of his engraved figures; in the course of which he says, that the specimen seemed to him important on account of the length of the umbilical cord, and the form of the cotyledons, which did not project, as is usual, outwards, but towards the inner face of the ovum, a peculiarity which had not yet been observed and described.