Mr. Owen on the Glyptodon clavipes. 83 



therium or any other animal, are mentioned as having been associated with them. 

 This fossil armour precisely corresponds with that discovered at the lake Las 

 Averias, and brought over to England by Sir Woodbine Parish, and of which a 

 portion is figured by Mr. Clift in his memoir on the Megatherium*. 



A third series of fossils, in which fortunately some bones of the extremities were 

 discovered associated with the tesselated bony case, was presented to Sellow by 

 the President of the province of San Pedro, with the information that they had 

 been originally discovered in the proximity of the Rio Janeiro. Now these import- 

 ant bones are not described by Professor Weiss ; but he states that they will form 

 the subject of a subsequent memoir by Sellow himself. Prof. Weiss, however, gives 

 the dimensions of the pieces of the armour, which, as the bones found therewith 

 belonged chiefly to the left fore-leg, he conjectures to have belonged to the anterior 

 and inferior part of the left side of the carapace. The chord of the longitudinal 

 curve of the longest fragment measured twenty-three inches, and the depth from 

 the middle of the chord to the under-surface of the concavity was two and a quar- 

 ter inches. The chord of the transverse bow or curvature was ten inches, and the 

 depth from the middle of the chord to the under surface of the armour four inches ; 

 from which Sellow conjectured that the animal must have been ten feet, or fifteen 

 palmas long, by seven palmas broad and four and a half palmas high. 



Thus the fossils from South America, noticed in the Berlin memoir, resolve 

 themselves into three distinct groups, from three different localities ; first, a bone 

 without armour ; secondly, armour without bones ; and thirdly, armour and bones 

 mingled together in the same bed. 



Now the portions of tesselated armour from the two localities, viz. Arapey- 

 chico and Rio Janeiro, are identical in structure. Professor Weiss's opinion, that 

 they belong to the Megatherium, rests solely on the observation made by Cuvier 

 in reference to the note of the Spanish Cure, the bearing of which on the present 

 question we have already examined ; it is obvious, therefore, that the bones, found 

 with the armour, can alone yield us the information we are in quest of, as to the 

 nature of the huge animal so singularly protected. Fortunately for science, and 

 for the determination more especially of the present interesting question, these 

 bones have been excellently described and illustrated by Professor D'Altonf, to 

 whom they were confided for that purpose after the decease of Sellow. They include 

 the fractured extremity of the humerus, the entire radius and ulna, and a great pro- 

 portion of the fore-foot, all belonging, as stated by Weiss, to the left side, and a 

 less complete series of bones of the left hind-foot. Not any teeth, or portions of 

 the skull accompanied them to Berlin, so that Professor D 'Alton restricts his 



* Geological Transactions, 1835, p. 438. 



f Abhandlungen tier Kon. Acad, der Wissenschaften zu Berlin ; 1833. 



M 2 



