MEGATHERIUM. 127 



Chlamyphorus, consists, in its hide having probably been 

 covered with a bony coat of armour ; varying from three- 

 fourths of an inch, to an inch and a half in thickness, and 

 resembling the armour which covers these living inhabitants, 

 of the same warm and sandy regions of South America. 

 Fragments of this armour are represented at PI. 5, Figs. 

 12, 13.* 



A covering of such enormous weight, would have 

 been consistent with the general structure of the Mefrathe- 

 rium ; its columnar hind-legs and colossal tail, were calcu- 

 lated to give it due support ; and the strength of the loins 

 and ribs, being very much greater than in the Elephant, 

 seems to have been necessary for carrying so ponderous a 

 cuirass as that which we suppose to have covered the 

 body.f 



Hon?, from the three more elongated and flatter claw-bones of the fore-foot, 

 the oblique form of which is peculiarly adapted for digg'ing. 



* The resemblance between some parts of this fossil armour, and of the 

 armour of an Armadillo, (Dasypus Pcba) is extended even to the detail of 

 the patterns of the tubcrculatcd compartments into which they are divided, 

 see PI. 5, Figs. 12, 14. The increase of size in the entire shield is in both 

 casss provided for, by causing the centre of every plate to form a centre of 

 growth, around which the margin receives continual additions, as the in- 

 creasing bulk of the body requires an increase in the dimensions of the bony 

 case, by which it is invested. Figs. 15, 16, 17, represent portions of the 

 armour of the head, body, and tail piece of the Chlamyphorus. Figs. 18, 

 19, represent the manner in which the armour is disposed over the head 

 and anterior part of the body of the Chlamyphorus, and Dasypusi Peba. 

 The body of the Megatherium, when covered with its corresponding coat of 

 armour,, must in some degree have rcscaibled a tilted wagon. 



t In the transactions of the Academy of Berlin, 1830, Professor Weiss 

 has published an account of some bones of the Megatherium, discovered 

 near Monte Video, accompanied by several fragments of bony armour. 

 Much of this armour he refers without doubt to the Megatherium; other 

 portions of it, and also many bones fro.m the same district, he assigns to 

 other aiiin)a!s. A similar admixture of bones and armour, derived from more 

 than one species of animal, bearing a bony cuirass, isfoimd in the. collection 

 made at several and distant points of the country above Buenos Ayres,. by 



