286 EXTINCT MONSTERS 



but the hind quarters show enormous strength and weight com- 

 bined. The tail, also, is very powerful and massive. The fore 

 limbs are long, and evidently constructed for the exertion of 

 great force. How this force was applied we shall see presently. 

 In both sets of limbs we notice powerful claws, such as might 

 be used for scratching up the ground near the roots of a tree, 

 and it was at one time thought that this was the way in which 

 the creature obtained its leafy food, namely, by digging up trees 

 by the roots and then devouring the leaves. But Owen had 

 another explanation. 



As in the living sloths and armadillos (edentata *), there are no 

 teeth in the fore part of the jaw. The molar teeth, of which there 

 are five on each side of the upper jaw, and four in the lower, are 

 hollow prismatic cylinders, straight, seven to nine inches long, 

 and implanted in deep sockets. 



On looking at the model so skilfully set up at South Kensing- 

 ton, and especially at the front part of the skull, it will be seen 

 that the snout and lips must have been somewhat elongated, 

 possibly into a slight proboscis like that of the tapir. The 

 specimens of the lower jaw in the wall-case close by show that 

 it was much prolonged and grooved. This fact must be inter- 

 preted to mean that the creature possessed a long and powerful 

 tongue, aided by which it could, like the giraffe, strip off the 

 small branches of the trees which it had broken or bent down 

 within its reach. 



A bony shield (or carapace) of a great armadillo was found 

 with one of the specimens described by Mr. Clift, and Buckland 

 and others thought it belonged to the Megatherium ; but Owen 

 afterwards showed, by most clear and convincing reasoning from 



1 This word, which means toothless, is misleading. All the Pleistocene and 

 existing edentata, however, agree in having no front, or incisor, teeth. Some 

 forms from Santa Cruz have front teeth. 



