A Report on some Fossil Bones af the Mcgalonyx,from 

 Virginia; with a notice of such imrts of the skeleton of this 

 animal as have been hitherto discovered, and remarks on the 

 affinities which they indicate. By Wi lliam Cooper. 



Read January, 1833. 



These bones were presented to the Lyceum about a year 

 ago, by Mr. G. S. Bibby, of this city. Two of them are evi- 

 dently ungueal phalanges : and the third, which fits well upon 

 the upper extremity of the larger of them, and probably belongs 

 to it, is a middle phalanx. By comparing them with the casts 

 of those originally discovered in Virginia, their place in the 

 skeleton may be determined with much exactness. The larger 

 corresponds to that which Cuvier, having the metacarpal bones 

 and first phalanges, and numerous objects of comparison among 

 the kindred animals, pronounces the last phalanx of the left 

 middle finger, or fore toe. A slight difference, however, in 

 the convexity of the two sides, which in ours is greater on the 

 left, while in the Jefferson bone it is greater on the right, shows 

 that it is from the opposite side of the animal. It is therefore 

 the last phalanx of the right middle finger, to which also the 

 middle phalangial bone must have belonged. 



The other ungueal phalanx corresponds to that which Cuvier 

 judges to have been the last of the annular or third finger of the 

 left side ; except being also, for the same reason, evidently 

 from the opposite side. It is, however, in better preservation 

 than the analogous one now in Philadelphia, as it retains all of 

 one side of the great bony sheath, of which Cuvier, from an 

 examination of the casts, supposed the Megalonyx to have 

 merely the vestiges :* but, as Dr. Harlan has already remark- 



* Ossem. Foss. V. pt. 1. p. 190. 



