America, was the Megatherium*, which in certain dimensions surpasses all 

 known quadrupeds, existing or extinct. 



A summary of the knowledge of the osteology of the Megatherium since 

 acquired by Cuvier from a comparison of the descriptions and figures "published 

 by Garriga, Abildgaard, Pander and D'Altonf, is given in the posthumous 

 edition of the ' Ossemens Fossiles' J, to which the able editor, M. Laurillard, has 

 appended some valuable observations founded on the casts and Mr. Cliffs de- 

 scription § of the remains of the Megatherium presented by Sir Woodbine Parish 

 to the Royal College of Surgeons in 1832. 



In that summary the resemblance of the Megatherium to the Sloths in the 

 descending process of the zygomatic arch, and in the angular process of the 

 lower jaw, is pointed out ; its supposed difference in both number and mode of 

 implantation of the teeth is dwelt upon||. 



Seven cervical, sixteen dorsal, and three lumbar vertebree are assigned to the 

 Megatherium by Cuvier, who regrets that the absence of the cartilages or sternal 

 portions of the ribs, and also (with the exception of a single bone) of the sternum 

 itself, prevents the form and capacity of the chest being recognized, or properly 

 shown in the articulated skeleton at Madrid. 



The sacrum is described to consist of five anchylosed vertebrae, whose spines 

 form a continuous crest, indicating the existence of a tail of some length ; which 

 indication, the fossils brought to England by Sir Woodbine Parish confirmed^. 



* So named and described by Cuvier, in 1795, from impressions of the plates illustrating the 

 work subsequently published by Bru and Garriga, entitled ' Descripcion del Esqueleto de un Qua- 

 drupedo muy corpulento y raro, que se conserva en el Real Gabinete de Historia Natural de Madrid, 

 fol. 1796,' and containing the description of the most perfect skeleton of the Megatherium yet ob- 

 tained. Tliis skeleton was discovered near the city of Buenos Ayres in 1789, and was transmitted to 

 Madrid by the governor of the province, Don Hilario Sosa. 



t Das Riesen-Faulthier, Bradypus giganteiis, abgebildet, beschrieben, und mit verwandten Ge- 

 schlechtem verglichen, von Dr. Chr. Pander und Dr. E. D'Alton. Bonn, fol. 1821. 



X 8vo, torn. viii. 1836, pp. 331-370. 



§ Geological Transactions, Second Series, vol. iii. p. 437. 



II The remains of the Megatherium transmitted to England by Sir Woodbine Parish showed that 

 the teeth of tlie Megatherium are implanted as in the Sloths, and indeed in all other so called Edentata, 

 by an undivided root of the same size as the crown ; not, as Cuvier supposed, by a bifid fang. 



^ The caudal vertebrae and bony dermal armour ascribed to the Megatherium by Don Damasio de 

 Laranhaja (Bulletin de la Society Philomathique, 1823, p. 83), appertain to another great fossil animal, 

 called by me Glyptodon clavipes. — Geol. Trans., Second Series, vol. vi. p. 98. 



