186 



SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF MAMMALIA. 



118. — UngLieaJ Phalanx of Megatherium. 



119. — Tooth of Megatherium. 



animals we may predicate a similarity in their food, a 

 glance at the bony framework of the megatherium is 

 sufficient to show that it must have resorted to other 

 means of obtaining its leafy provender than that of climb- 

 ing for it, whereby the necessity of inferring a propor- 

 tionate magnitude of the trees which nourished the 

 megatherium is obviated." It would appear that, like 

 the mylodon, the megatherium uprooted the trees, on 

 the leaves of which it fed, and was furnished with a 

 small proboscis as an adjunct to the tongue in stripping 

 off the smaller branches of the prostrate tree ; its skull, 

 moreover, has the two tables separated by cells, as in the 

 mylodon. Fig. 117 represents the pelvis and hind-leg 

 of the megatherium in the Royal College of Surgeons ; 



