737 



MEGAPHTTOK. 



MEQATHERIID^:. 



739 



hardly likely, the tail might also have been 12 or 14 feet long; while 

 comparing the proportions of the bones of the head with those of the 

 Java monster, the nearest analogue, we shall have an additional 5 feet, 

 making in all nearly 30 feet ; and this measurement is more likely to 

 err on the side of excess than of curtailment. 



Even however when we have thus halved the length originally 

 assigned, we shall find that in attempting to picture to ourselves this 

 strange animal we must draw largely on the imagination. From the 

 size and form of its ribs, the trunk appears to have been broader and 

 deeper than in modern Saurians ; and this monstrous trunk was 

 elevated on legs of unusual length and massive proportions, being 

 raised to a height of several feet from the ground. The long narrow snout 

 and powerful dental apparatus, well adapted to the carnivorous habits 

 of the animal, would render it an object of terror as well as of aston- 

 ishment ; and it is difficult for us to appreciate the amount of change 

 that has taken place, since a portion of the spot now called England 

 was an island peopled by such reptiles, whose rivers and marshes were 

 crowded with the aquatic crocodilians just described, and which was 

 surrounded by an ocean in which the Ichthyosaurus, the Plesiosaurus, 

 and the Ceteosaurus formed a group of predatory animals never sur- 

 passed in fierceness, strength, and voracity. (Ansted.) 



Dr. Buckland says, speaking of the remains of this animal : 

 "Although the known parts of the skeleton are at present very 

 limited, they are yet sufficient to determine the place of the animal in 

 the zoological system. Whilst the vertebral column and extremities 

 much resemble those of quadrupeds, the teeth show the creature to 

 have been oviparous, and to have belonged to the oder of Saurians, or 

 Lizards. The largest thigh-bone of this animal in the museum at 

 Oxford is 2 feet 9 inches long, and nearly 1 inches in circumference 

 at its central or smallest part. From these dimensions, as compared 

 with the ordinary standard of the Lizard family, a length exceeding 

 40 feet and a bulk equal to that of an elephant 7 feet high have been 

 assigned by Cuvier to the individual to which this bone belonged ; and 

 although we cannot safely attribute exactly the same proportions to 

 recent and extinct species, yet we may with certainty ascribe to it a 

 magnitude very far exceeding that of any living lacerta. Large as are 

 the proportions of thin individual, they fall very short of those which 

 we cannot but deduce from the thigh-bone of another of the game 

 species, which has been discovered in the ferruginous sandstone of 

 Tilgate Forest, near C'uckfield, in Sussex, and is preserved in the 

 valuable collection of Dr. Mantell, now in the British Museum, together 

 with many other bones belonging to the same species, aud of the same 

 size with those from Stonesfield. The femur in question, which has 

 lost its head and lower extremity, measures in its smallest part, at the 

 distance of two feet from its extremity, more than twenty inches in 

 circumference, and therefore, when entire, must have equalled in mag- 

 nitude the femur of the largest living elephant. To judge from the 

 dimensions of this thigh-bone, its former possessor must have been 

 twice as great as that to which the similar bone in the Oxford Museum 

 belonged ; and, if the total length and height of animals were in pro- 

 portion to the linear dimensions of their extremities, the beast in 

 question would have equalled in height our largest elephants, and in 

 length fallen but little short of the largest whales; but as the longitu- 

 dinal growth of animals is not in so high a ratio, after making some 

 deduction, we may calculate the length of this reptile from C'uckfield 

 at from 60 to 70 feet." 



In Cuvier's opinion Megalosaurut partook of the structure of the 

 Crocodile and the Monitor. (Mantell, ' Geology of Sussex ' ; Cuvier, 

 ' Ossemens Fossiles,' and ' Geol. Trans.,' vol. iii., 2nd series ; Mantell, 

 ' Fossils of the British Museum.') 



Besides the localities above mentioned, we may notice the occurrence 

 of this animal in the Oolite of Normandy ; Forest Marble, Caen ; and 

 Jura, near Solothurn (?). (H. Von Meyer.) [SAUBIA.] 



MEGA'PHYTON, a genus of Fossil Plants, from the Coal-Measures. 

 [COAL PLANTS.] 



MEGAPODIID^E, Mr. Swainson's name for a family of Raaores, 

 consisting of the genus Menura, the sub-genus Megapodius, and the 

 genera Dicholophiu, Psophia, and Crcuc, with the sub-genera Crax, 

 Ourax, Ortalida, Penelope, and Lophocerui. 



MEGAPODIUS. [CIIACIDA] 



MEGAPTERA. [CETACEA.] 



MEGARI'MA, the name proposed by Rafinesque for those species 

 of Terebratula which are nearly equivalve and smooth, as T. Icevis, 

 T. cratta, Ac. [BBACHIOPODA.] 



MEGASPITIA, Dr. Lea's name for a genus of pupiform, terrestrial, 

 testaceous Mollusca, remarkable for the length of the spire of its 

 shell, which consists of 23 close-set, narrow, gradually-increasing 

 whorl*, which he thus characterises : 



Shell clavate; aperture nearly oval, below rounded; margins 

 reflected, above disjoined ; columella many-folded, below entire, not 

 effuse. Animal unknown. 



This genus, which is closely analogous to the genera Bulinus, Pupa, 

 and A uricula, according to Dr. Lea, is founded on a single species, 

 M. Ktitc/tenberffiana. 



The shell is subcylindrical, turreted, thickly striate, brownish, 

 with longitudinal reddish-brown spots, having a solid apex ; whorls 

 23, rather flattened ; spire obtuse at the apex ; columella with four 

 folds ; outer lip reflected. 



HAT. HIST. DIV. VOL. III. 



Mcgaspira Rttscftanbergiana, Lea. 



MEGASTOMA. 



MEGATHE'RIID^E, Megatkeroids of Owen, who includes under the 

 family the following genera of extinct Edentata, namely, Megatherium, 

 Megalonyx, Glossothmum, Mylodon, and Scelidotherium, all of which 

 have as yet been found in America only. 



Megatherium (Cuvier), a gigantic extinct Mammiferous Quadruped, 

 more nearly allied to the Ant-Eaters aud Sloths than to the Armadilloes. 

 The dental formula cannot be definitely stated, because the number 

 of teeth in the lower jaw is not known. The upper jaw, as Professor 

 Owen has shown, contains five on each side, and from the analogy of 

 Scelidotherium it may be conjectured that Megatherium had only four 

 teeth on each side in the lower jaw. In that case the formula wouM 

 be: 



Incisors, 2. ; Canines, -; Molars, ?H^ = 18. 

 4 4 



Cuvier pointed out the skull of this animal as very much resem- 

 bling that of the Sloths, but observed that the rest of the skeleton 

 bore a relationship partly to the Sloths and partly to the Ant-Eaters. 

 The Madrid specimen was for a long time the principal if not tho 

 only source of information with regard to the genus ; and as Mr. Clift 

 remarks in his paper, to which we shall presently allude more largely,* 

 that magnificent though imperfect skeleton had remained for the last 

 century altogether unique. " Very few additional specimens," says 

 that able osteologist, " appear to have been sent to Europe ; and no 

 other cabinet save the solitary one at Madrid possessed (as far as I am 

 able to learn) a single intelligible fragment which could with certainty 

 be assigned to this great unknown." The zeal and energy of Sir Wood- 

 bine Parish have added greatly to the materials for arriving at a just 

 conclusion as to the proper place of this animal in the series ; and the 

 history of the Megatherium may now be considered to be complete. 



According to the description of Don Joseph Garriga,+ Spain pos- 

 sessed considerable parts of at least three different skeletons. The 

 first and most complete is that which is preserved in the royal cabinet 

 at Madrid. This was sent over in 1789 by the Marquis of Loreto, 

 viceroy of Buenos Ayres, with a notice stating that it was found on 

 the banks of the river Luxan, west-south-west of Buenos Ayres. In 

 1795 a second arrived from Lima, and other portions, probably not 

 very considerable, were possessed by Father Fernando Scio, who had 

 received them as a present from a lady who had come from Paraguay. 

 According to Messrs. Pander and D' Alton, they were unable in 1818 to 

 find any traces of the Lima specimen, or that which had belonged to 

 Fernando Scio. 



The remains collected by Sir Woodbine Parish were found in the 

 river Salado, which runs through the flat alluvial plains (the Pampas) 

 to the south of the city of Buenos Ayres, after a succession of three 

 unusually dry seasons, " which lowered the waters in an extraordinary 

 degree, and exposed part of the pelvis to view as it stood upright in 

 the bottom of the river." This and other parts having been carried 

 to Buenos Ayres by the country people, were placed at the disposal 

 of Sir Woodbine Parish by Don Hilario Sosa, the owner of the pro- 

 perty on which the bones were found. A further inquiry was insti- 

 tuted by Sir Woodbine Parish, and, on his application, the governor, 

 Don Manuel Rosas, granted assistance, the result of which was tho 

 discovery of the remains of two other skeletons on his excellency's 

 properties of Las Averiaa and Villanueva; the one to the north, the 

 other to the south of the Salado, but at no great distance from the 

 place where the first had been found. " An immense shell or case 

 was found with the remains discovered on the properties of Don 

 Manuel, portions of which were brought to this country, but most of 

 the bones associated with the shell crumbled to pieces after exposure 

 to the air," and the broken pieces preserved had not been sufficiently 

 made out, when Mr. Clift published his memoir, to enable that zoolo- 

 gist to describe them satisfactorily ; but he gives very accurate figures 

 of a portion of the shell. 



The cuts in the following page will convey to the reader move accu- 

 rately than words the osseous structure of this enormous animal, 

 which when full grown must have been more than 14 feet long 

 including the tail, and upwards of 8 feet in height. 



The simple outline (from Pander and D'Alton) shows the extent of 

 the skeleton at Madrid. The pale tint expresses the extent of corre- 

 sponding parts sent to England by Sir Woodbine Parish. The dark 

 tint shows the additional parts, which are deficient in the Madrid 

 skeleton. (' Geol. Trans.') 



The thigh bone was twice the thickness of that of the largest 

 elephant; the fore foot must have measured more than a yard in 



* ' Some account of the Remains of tho Megatherium sent to England from 

 Buenos Ayres, by Woodbine Parish, Jun., Esq., F.G.S., F.K.S.,' by William 

 Clift, Esq., F.G.8., F.R.S. 



f ' Descripcion del Esqueleto de un Quadrupedo muy corpulento y raro que se 

 conscrva en el Real Gabinctc de la Ilistoria Natural de Madrid,' (Madrid, 1 796.) 



3 B 



