GIANT SLOTHS AND ARMADILLOS 287 



the skeleton, that the Megatherium could not have been protected 

 as armadillos are by such a shield (see p. 291). 



And now we come to the question how it obtained its food. 

 The idea of digging round trees with its claws in order to uproot 

 them, must be partly, if not entirely, given up; for Owen has 

 proved, by a masterly piece of reasoning, that this cumbrous 

 creature, instead of climbing up trees as modern sloths do, 

 actually pulled down the tree bodily, or broke it short off above 

 the ground by a tour de force, and, in order to do so, sat upon 

 its huge haunches and tail as on a tripod, while it grasped the 

 trunk in its long powerful arms ! Marvellous as this may seem, 

 it can be shown that every detail in the skeleton agrees with the 

 idea. Of course there would be limits to possibilities in this 

 direction, and the larger trees of the period must have been proof 

 against such Samson-like attempts on the part of the Mega- 

 therium; but when the trunk was too big, doubtless it pulled 

 down some of the lower branches. Plate LI. is a restoration, 

 by our artist, of the South Kensington skeleton. 



Sir Woodbine Parish thought that the Megatherium fed on the 

 Agave, or American aloe. 



Another form of extinct sloth found in the same region is the 

 Mylodon. Though of smaller size, it was much bigger than any 

 living sloth, and attained a length of eleven feet. It has the 

 same general structure, but the head and jaws are somewhat 

 different, and more like the recent forms. A nearly perfect and 

 original skeleton of Mylodon gracilis has been set up beside its 

 huge relative's cast in the same gallery at the Natural History 

 Museum. The crowns of its molar teeth are flat instead of being 

 ridged ; hence its name, which signified " mill-toothed." 



Yet another was the Scelidotherium l with its long limbs. 



1 Greek scelts, limb ; therion, beast. 



