MAMMALIA. 41 3 



" From the structure of the teeth he infers that both the 

 Megatherium and Mylodon must have been phyllophagous, or 

 leaf-eating animals;* whilst from their short necks, the very 

 opposite extreme to the Camelopard, they never could have 

 reached the tops of even the lowest trees. Cuvier had sug- 

 gested that they were fossorial or digging animals. Dr. Lund, 

 a Danish naturalist, had considered the Megatherium to be a 

 scansorial or climbing animal; in short, a gigantic sloth. 

 After a multitude of comparisons, Professor Owen rejects the 

 explanation of all his predecessors. He shows that the 

 monstrous dimensions of the hinder parts of the body, and the 

 colossal and heavy hinder legs could never have been designed 

 either to support an animal, which simply scratched the earth 

 for food, or one which fed by climbing into lofty trees, like 

 the diminutive Sloth; and he further cites the structure of 

 every analogous creature, either of burrowing or climbing 

 habits, to prove, that in all such, the hinder legs are com- 

 paratively light. What then was the method by which 

 these extraordinary monsters obtained their great supplies 

 of food?" 



The bones which correspond with those termed in the 

 human body the hip-bones, were of enormous size, and were 

 conjoined with muscular masses of unwonted force. " Pro- 

 fessor Owen supposes that the animal first cleared away the 

 earth from the roots with its digging instruments, and that 

 there seated on its hinder extremities, which, with the tail,t 

 are conjectured to have formed a tripod, and aided by the 

 extraordinary long heel as with a lever, it grasped the trunk 

 of the tree with its fore-legs. Heaving to and fro the stateliest 

 trees of primaeval forests, and wrenching them from their hold, 

 he at length prostrated them by his side, and then regaled 



* They form the family Gravigrada, "heavy paced," of Owen* 



f There is scarcely a doubt, that the tail of the Mylodon was supplied 

 with an arrangement of arteries similar to that which is known to exist in 

 the arm of the Sloth, and which serves to enable the animal to maintain 

 without fatigue his position, when suspended from the branch of a tree. 

 This is confirmed by the discovery by Dr. Allman, of a similar arrange- 

 ment in the tail of the Armadillo ; and it is known that this animal can 

 stand for a short time tripod-like, upon the tail and hind legs. Mr. Ball, 

 in the lecture referred to, regards this arterial arrangement as typical of 

 that which must have existed in the Megatherioid animals. 



VOL. II. K 



