FAUNA OF THE POST-PLIOCENE. 363 



Van Diemen's Land, and therefore to have been flesh-eating 

 and rapacious in its habits, through this view is not accepted 

 by others. The principal feature in the skull of Thylacoleo is 

 the presence, on each side of each jaw, of a single huge tooth, 

 which is greatly compressed, and has a cutting edge. This 

 tooth is regarded by Owen as corresponding to the great cut- 

 ting tooth of the jaw of the typical Carnivores, but Professor 

 Flower considers that Thylacoleo is rather related to the Kan- 



Fig. 260 .Megatherium Cuvieri. Post-Pliocene, South America. 



garoo-rats. The size of the crown of the tooth in question is 

 not less than two inches and a quarter ; and whether carnivor- 

 ous or not, it indicates an animal of a size exceeding that of 

 the largest of existing Lions. 



The order of the Edentates, comprising the existing Sloths, 

 Ant-eaters, and Armadillos, and entirely restricted at the present 

 day to South America, Southern Asia, and Africa, is one alike 

 singular for the limited geographical range of its members, 

 their curious habits of life, and the well-marked peculiarities 

 of their anatomical structure. South America is the metrop- 

 olis of the existing forms ; and it is an interesting fact that there 

 flourished within Post-Pliocene times in this continent, and to 

 some extent in North America also, a marvelous group of ex- 

 tinct Edentates, representing the living Sloths and Armadillos, 

 but of gigantic size. The most celebrated of these is the huge 

 Megatherium Cuvieri (fig. 260) of the South American Pampas. 

 The Megathere was a colossal Sloth-like animal which attained 

 a length of from twelve to eighteen feet, with bones more mas- 

 sive than those of the Elephant. Thus the thigh-bone is 



