476 



PETRIFACTION'S AND THEIR TEACHINGS. 



CHAP. VI. 



short extremities. 1 P, medium was % smaller than the American Tapir, 

 and had longer and slighter legs and feet. P. minus was an elegant 

 creature, as large as the Roebuck, with light and slender limbs. 2 



ANOPLOTHERIUM. This genus is remarkable from its forming a con- 

 necting link between the ruminants and the pachyderms, having the 

 cloven foot of the former, with canine teeth and other osteological cha- 

 racters of the latter; Baron Cuvier states that it combines affinities 



with the Rhinoceros, 

 Horse, Hippopotamus, 

 Hog, and Camel. The 

 Anoplotherium has for- 

 ty-four teeth disposed in 

 a continuous uninter- 

 rupted series (see Lign. 

 Ill) ; a dental character 

 only known in Man and 

 the Quadrumana ; viz. 

 f incisors ; canines, 

 LIGN. 111. JAWS AND TEETH OF THE ANOPLO- which are not larger 

 THERIUM COMMUNE. ( not. size.) than the incisors, and 



resemble them in form ; 



and ff molars, the anterior of which are compressed, and the upper pos- 

 terior square, while those of the lower jaw have two crescents. The feet 

 have but two developed toes, as in the ruminants ; but there are species 

 with small accessory toes, as in some of the animals of that order ; but 

 the metatarsal and metacarpal bones do not coalesce and form canon- 

 bones, as in the other pachyderms, but always remain distinct. The 

 Anoplotheria had a long and thick tail resembling that of the Otter, 

 and it is supposed they were of aquatic habits, like the Hippopotamus. 

 Seven or eight species have been discovered. 



The collection contains specimens of other Eocene mammalia of the 

 genera Dichobune, Anthracotherium, &c. 3 



CHAPTER VI. PART V. 



FOSSIL EDENTATA OF SOUTH AMERICA : THE 

 MEGATHERIUM. 



WE now arrive at the examination of the colossal skeleton which 

 arrested our attention on entering this room the Megatherium ; an 

 animal of an extinct family of Edentata, an Order of Mammalia, so 

 named from the absence of incisor teeth, and of which the diminutive 



1 See " Wonders of Geology," p. 255, fig. 2. 



2 Ibid, p, 255, fig. 4. 



3 See " Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles," for the history and 

 anatomical characters of these extinct genera. 



