PALEONTOLOGY SINCE CUVJER. 73 



driven northwards when the isthmus was restored, 

 or whether, according to Marsh, the north was 

 the original home of this animal likewise, does 

 not seem to be a settled point. This Megathe- 

 rium was already known to Cuvier. But most of 

 the Edentata were not discovered till later, and 

 Lund's discoveries l in the cave-deposits of Brazil 

 may be said to mark an epoch; in more recent 

 times, Burmeister, 2 a veteran in zoological research, 

 has in a masterly way described the gigantic 

 Argentine armadilloes and other animals. 



A comparison of our present fauna, both of 

 Europe and Asia as well as of the two Americas 

 with that of the Diluvial period in these same 

 regions, will show the present at a very great 

 disadvantage ; Wallace might well say that we 

 live in a world which is zoologically very im- 

 poverished, and from which the hugest, wildest, 

 and strangest forms have now disappeared. This 

 disappearance of numerous races of animals, in the 

 eastern and western hemispheres, almost makes 

 the impression as if it had been the result of some 

 such catastrophe as we have declared ourselves 



1 Lund, Brasiliens Dyrverden. Copenhagen, 1841-45. 



2 Burmeister, Annales del Miiseo piiblico de Buenos Aires, 

 1864, p. 9. 



