Geological Society. 293 



ging animals ; and we all recollect the animated manner in which 

 Dr. Buckland attracted us, whilst he described the Megatherium as a 

 huge beast, whicli, resting upon three legs, eixiployed one of its long 

 fore-hands in grubbing up whole fields of escufent roots ; a habit 

 which procured for it the significant popular name of " Old Scratch." 



Dr. Lund, a Danish naturalist, had considered the Megatherium 

 to be a scansorial or climbing animal ; in short, a gigantic Sloth. 

 After a multitude of comparisons. Professor Owen rejects the 

 explanation of all his predecessors. He shows that the mon- 

 strous dimensions of the pelvis and sacrum, and the colossal 

 and heavy hinder legs, could never have been designed, either 

 to support an animal which simply scratched the earth for food, 

 or one which fed by climbing into lofty trees, like the diminutive 

 Sloth ; and he further cites the structure of every analogous creature, 

 either of burrowing or climbing habits, to prove, that in all such the 

 hinder legs are comparatively light. What then was the method by 

 which these extraordinary monsters obtained their great supplies of 

 food ? The osteology of the fore-arm has, it appears, afforded 

 answers which are valuable, chiefly for their negation of erroneous 

 conjectures, such as that the animal was an ant-eater, rather than for 

 the habits which it directly elicits. It is, therefore, to the organi- 

 zation of the hinder limbs that Professor Owen mainly appeals to 

 ascertain the functions of the fore-feet and the general habits of the 

 Mylodon. 



Arguing that the enormous pelvis must have been the centre 

 whence muscular masses of unwonted force diverged to act 

 upon the trunk, tail and hind-legs, the latter, it is supposed, formed 

 with the tail a tripod on which the animal sat. Professor Owen 

 supposes that the animal first cleared away the earth from the roots 

 with its digging instruments, and that then seated on its hinder 

 extremities, which with the tail are conjectured to have formed a 

 tripod, and aided by the extraordinary long heel as with a lever, it 

 grasped the trunk of the tree with its fore-legs. Heaving to and 

 fro the stateliest trees of primaeval forests, and wrenching them 

 from their hold, he at length prostrated them by his side, and 

 then regaled himself for several days on their choicest leaves and 

 branches, which till then had been far beyond reach. After show- 

 ing that from the natural inversion of the hind-feet the Mylodon ap- 

 proached to the scansorial animals, and thence inferring that it might 

 have had climbing powers necessarily much limited by the other 

 parts of its frame. Professor Owen states, that the inversion of the 

 soles of the feet is least conspicuous in the Megatherium, whose 

 bulk and strength would be adequate to the prostration of trees too 

 large for the efforts of the Mylodon, Megalonyx and Scelidotherium. 

 The Megatherium, in short, was the mighty tree-drawer, and had 

 therefore no need of the adventitious aid of any climbing appa- 

 ratus. Allow me to add, that, amongst other reasonings, those 

 which lead to conclusions that one class of megatherioid animals 

 was furnished with a hairy coating (like the Mylodon), whilst 

 another, like the great Megatherium, was devoid of it, as evi- 



