194 



SUPPLEMENT. 



No. [23.] Megatherium Cuvieri, Desmarest. 



Skeleton. This gigantic fossil was first 'made known to the scientific 

 world in 1789. It was discovered on the banks of the River Luxan, near the 

 city of Buenos Ayres, and was subsequently transmitted to Madrid, where, 

 for half a century, it excited the most lively speculations among all European 

 naturalists, who were so fortunate as to see it. The original bones, of which 

 this specimen is a copy, were found in the same Pampean deposit between the 

 years 1831 and 1838, and belong partly to the Hunterian Museum of the 

 Royal College of Surgeons, and partly to the British Museum. To give to 

 the singular quadruped its proper position in the Animal Kingdom, was for 

 many years a problem in comparative anatomy which the savans of Europe 

 could not solve. Led astray by the huge carapace of the Glyptodon, found 

 near it, the majority called it a mammoth Armadillo. Ctts'ier, who gave it 

 its generic title, thought it combined the characteristics of the Sloth, Ant- 

 eater and Armadillo. The merit of throwing a flood of light on the nature 

 and structure of this most remarkable of all fossil mammals, was reserved 

 for the celebrated English Geologist, Professor Owen. He conclusively 

 proves that the Megatherium was a " Ground Sloth," feeding on the foliage of 

 trees which it uprooted by its great strength. 



The extreme length of the mounted skeleton is seventeen feet and nine 

 inches ; its height when mounted as shown in the cut, 13 feet. No other fossil 

 so exceeds its modern representative, as the lordly Megatherium surpasses 

 the pigmy remnant of the Tardigrade race ; for the largest living Sloth does 

 not exceed two feet in length. One is tempted to join the Spanish natural- 

 ist who objected to the place assigned to the Megatherium, because "all 



