50 Charles Darwin. 



into rings ; and finally a toxodon — a creature as large 

 as an elephant, but related to the rats and mice and 

 other gnawers. 



These gigantic remains aroused the greatest en- 

 thusiasm in the young naturalist, and he had the 

 satisfaction of being the first to present to English 

 scientists specimens from this locality. He pictured 

 the appearance of the huge animals when alive, and 

 with Professor Owen later gave graphic descriptions 

 of them. He says : " The great size of the bones of 

 the megatheroid animals, including the megatherium, 

 megalonyx, scelidotherium, and mylodon, is truly 

 wonderful. The habits of life of these animals were 

 a complete puzzle to naturalists, until Professor 

 Owen lately solved the problem with remarkable 

 ingenuity. The teeth indicate, by their simple 

 structure, that these megatheroid animals lived on 

 vegetable food, and probably on the leaves and 

 small twigs of trees ; their ponderous forms, and 

 great, strong, curved claws seem so little adapted 

 for locomotion, that some eminent naturalists have 

 actually believed that, like the sloths, to which they 

 are intimately related, they subsisted by climbing 

 back downwards on trees, and feeding on the leaves. 

 It was a bold, not to say preposterous, idea to con- 

 ceive even antediluvian trees with branches strong 

 enough to bear animals as large as elephants. Pro- 

 fessor Owen> with far more probability, believes that, 

 instead of climbing on the trees, they pulled the 

 branches down to them, and tore up the smaller 

 ones by the roots, and so fed on the leaves. The 

 colossal breadth and weight of their hinder quarters, 



