megatheeium. 181 



The Megatherium. 



The relics of this colossal beast, of which Fig. 116 

 represents the skeleton, have been discovered only in 

 South America, of which continent, at some remote 

 period, it was an inhabitant. 



The affinity of this animal to the sloths and other 

 Edentata was pointed out by Cuvier, but many points 

 required elucidation; in fact zoologists have been led, 

 not without apparent grounds, into some errors, recently 

 corrected. 



For a long time the museum of Madrid afforded the 

 only relics of the megatherium in Europe; but the 

 skeleton they compose is deficient in several of its parts : 

 fortunately the recent acquisition by the Royal College 

 of Surgeons of a great portion of the bones of this animal 

 has tended to supply the defects, at least to a considerable 

 extent. 



These splendid and valuable remains form the subject 

 of an interesting paper from the pen of Mr. Clift, in the 

 third vol., p. 3, of the ' Trans. Geol. Soc. Lond.,' ac- 

 companied by an improved figure of the skeleton, and 

 figures of various detached parts, together with a map of 

 that part of the province of Buenos Ayres in which the 

 places where the bones in question were found, and also 

 those of the Madrid specimen, are marked down. 



The acquisition of these remains by the Royal College 

 of Surgeons is due to the zeal and liberality of Woodbine 

 Parish, Esq. " They were found in the river Salado, 

 which runs through the flat alluvial plains to the south 

 of the city of Buenos Ayres. Their discovery was owing 

 to a succession of unusually dry seasons in the three pre- 

 ceding years, which lowered the waters in an extraordi- 

 nary degree, and exposed part of the pelvis to view as it 

 stood upright in the bottom of the river. It appears 

 that this and some other parts of the skeleton, having 

 been carried to Buenos Ayres by the country-people, 

 were very liberally placed at Mr. Parish's disposal by 

 Don Hilario Sosa, the owner of the property on which 

 they were found. In the hope of obtaining the other 



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