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NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



1. TJie Zoology of the Voyage of H. M. S. Beagle, under the com- 

 mand of Captain Fitzroy, during the years 1832 to 1836. 

 Part 1. Fossil Mammalia. 4to, with numerous plates : Smith, 

 Elder and Company, London. By Professor Owen. 



This magnificent and most interesting work, now publishing 

 imder the patronage of Government, is to appear in parts. The 

 first part, that now before us, contains a geological introduction 

 by Mr Charles Darwin, who accompanied Captain Fitzroy, 

 explanatory of the nature of the alluvial and tertiary deposits in 

 South America, in which the fossil mammalia are found ; but 

 the chief part of this number is written by Professor Owen, con- 

 sidered as the highest authority in comparative anatomy in this 

 country. He says, " It is remarkable that all the fossils collected 

 by Mr Darwin belong to herbivorous species of mammalia, gene- 

 rally of a large size. The greater part are referable to the order 

 which Cuvier has called Edentata, and belong to that sub- 

 division of the order {DasypodidcE) which is characterised 

 by having perfect and sometimes complex molar teeth, and 

 an external osseous and tessulated coat of mail. The me- 

 gatherium is the giant of this tribe, which at the present day 

 is exclusively represented by South American species, the largest 

 (Dasypits Gigas, Cnv.) not exceeding the size of a hog. T" a 

 hiatus between the living species and the megatherium is filled 

 up by a series of armadillo-like animals, indicated more or less 

 satisfactorily by Mr Darwin's fossils, some of which species were 

 as large as an ox, others about the size of the American Tapir. 

 The rest of the collection belongs, with exception of some small 

 Rodents, to the extensive and heterogeneous order Pachyder- 

 mata ; it includes the remains of a mastodon, of a horse, and of 

 two large and singular aberrant forms, one of which connects 

 the Pachydermatous with the Ruminant order ; the other, with 

 which the descr.ptions in the follo\ving pages commence, mani- 

 fests a close affinity to the Rodent order." 



The first fossil animal mentioned by Professor Owen is 

 named Toxodon Platensis, which he describes as a gigantic ex- 

 tinct mammiferous animal, referable to the order Pachyder- 

 mata, but with affinities to the Rodentia, Edentata, and herbi- 



