4-18 On a Fossil Vertebra from Eschscholtz Bay. 



point without actually comparing the vertebra with the cor- 

 responding bone of the Megatherium. The comparison of 

 the figure given by Dr. Buckland with the description and 

 engraving of the bones of the Megatherium contained in the 

 last edition of Cuvier's Ossemens Fossilcs, afforded no deci- 

 sive indication on the subject, either negative or affirmative. 

 Whether a similar comparison with the plates of Pander and 

 D' Alton would lead to a satisfactory determination, I am not 

 aware ; and in this deficiency of evidence I mention my sup- 

 position, for the purpose of drawing attention to the subject. 

 It is probable that the means of actual comparison with the 

 Megatherium will shortly be afforded, by the arrival in Eng- 

 land of a perfect skeleton of that animal, recently announced 

 as having been obtained by Mr.Woodbine Parish, at Buenos 

 Ay res*. 



Should this vertebra ultimately prove to have in reality be- 

 longed to a species of Megatherium, the fact will lead to further 

 interesting results. An important object of inquiry will be, 

 whether the Megatherium was co-extensive on both continents, 

 with the extinct elephant, or whether, like the sloths, and the 

 ant-eaters (Myrmecophaga, Linn.,) to which it is allied, it was 

 confined to the New World, where, alone, the bones of the 

 Megatherium also have yet been discovered-)-. The localities 

 in which the latter have hitherto been found, including that of 

 the skeleton in the possession of Mr. W. Parish, are included 

 within the parallels of about 40 south, and 40 north latitude; 

 and the remains of the allied genus Megalonyx have occurred 

 only between the parallels of 30 and 40 north. 



All these remains, I believe, have been found in superficial 

 deposits of clay and gravel, &c., or in caverns ; and under cir- 

 cumstances which would have caused them to be referred to 

 the " Diluvial " era, until the recent discriminations on that 

 subject; but their history is at present too little known, to 

 permit us, in the actual condition of science, to point out, de- 

 terminately, the epoch to which they belong. The view which 

 Dr. Buckland has taken of the mode of destruction of the 

 extinct Elephant, is equally applicable to the Megatherium, if 

 they were coexisting animals. 



16, St. James's Street, Clcrkenwell, May 20, 1831. 



certain Birds of Cuba," in the Transactions of the Linnaean Society, vol. xvi. 

 p. 25, 2729, 3740; and Cuvier, Regne Animal, (edit. 1829) tome i. 

 p. 223, 236. 



* See Prof. Jameson's Journal, January March 1831. 



f The remaining fossil animal belonging to the Edentata is at present 

 known only from a single ungueal phalanx, of gigantic size, found, together 

 with bones of Pachydcrmata, both of extinct and still existing genera, in 

 sand and gravel, at Eppelsheirn in the Palatinate. Its living analogue, the 

 Pangolin (Mani.s, Linn.,) is confined to the Old World. Cuvier, Osse- 

 mens Fossilcs, torn. v. l re partie, p. 193; Regne Animal, torn. i. p. 232233. 



LXIII. 



