DESCRIPTION 



SKELETON OF THE MYLODON ROBUSTUS. 



Introduction. ^ 



1 HE Skeleton which is the subject of the present Memoir was discovered in 

 the year 1841 by M. Pedro de Angelis, seven leagues north of the city of 

 Buenos Ayres, in the fluvatile deposits constituting the extensive plain inter- 

 sected by the great Rio Plata and its tributaries, and which has been raised 

 during a recent geological epoch above the level of the sea*. 



In this formation, and most probably anterior to its elevation, the animal 

 must have been buried entire ; and, if the present heat of the climate prevailed, 

 soon after its death : for the parts of the skeleton were found little disturbed, 

 and the very few bones that are wanting are such as would be likely to escape 

 the search of the most diligent collector. 



About the same time, and near the same place, a tesselated osseous carapace 

 of some large quadruped, like an Armadillo, was exhumed ; and information of 

 this discovery having been communicated to the Royal College of Surgeons by 

 Sir Woodbine Parish, late H.M. Charge d'AfFaires at Buenos Ayres, both this 

 carapace and the above-mentioned skeleton were purchased by the College. 

 They arrived in November 1 84 1 , in many pieces, fragile from the loss of the 



* See the Geological Introduction by Mr. Darwin to the Description of the Fossil Mammalia dis- 

 covered in the Voyage of the Beagle, Part 1, 4to, 1838, p. 5. 



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