212 PROCEEDINGS OF THE PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



GIGAKTIC MEGATHENIUM FliOM FLORIDA 

 BY W. D. MATTHEW 



(Ahsfract) 



During the summer of 1916 Mr. Heller presented to tlie Museum a small 

 collection of fossil bones believed to be from Zolfo, Florida. Some of the 

 remains are cetacean and may be of Tertiary age ; the rest are apparently 

 Pleistocene, and most of them, probably all, belong to a gigantic ground-sloth. 

 The only complete bone is an astragalus ; the proximal half of a femur, distal 

 half of a radius, parts of tibia, and other unrecognizable fragments may very 

 probably belong to the same individual, as they all agree well in characters 

 with the skeleton of Megatherium described and figured by Owen and are about 

 one-fifth larger in lineal dimensions. 



The onlj point of especial interest about these remains is the size. Mega- 

 therium has been recorded from South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, 

 and Texas, and no doubt its range extended throughout the Southern States 

 in the Pleistocene; but I have found no record of any specimens materially 

 larger than Owen's type. The present specimen, averaging one-fifth larger 

 lineally, would have been about 1% as large in bulk or weight, and must have 

 equaled or exceeded in bulk any known land mammal, living or extinct. It 

 is to be hoped that the better specimens of this imposing beast may be secured 

 through the active explorations now being conducted by the Florida State 

 Geological Survey. 



SKELETON OF DIATRYMA, A GIGANTIC BIRD OF THE LOWER EOCENE 

 BY W. D. MATTHEW AND WALTER GRANGER 



(AJ)stract) 



The discovery of a nearly complete skeleton of this extremely rare bird in 

 the Wasatch formation of the Bighorn basin, Wyoming, was quite unexpected. 

 It equaled the Moa in bulk, but had a gigantic head, with enormous com- 

 pressed beak like the South American Phororhachos. It is not nearly related 

 to any known type of bird. 



AN OKLAHOMA PLEISTOCENE FAUNA 

 BY E. L. TROXELL 



(Ahstract) 



A number of extinct animals were found in a refilled channel near Mulhall, 

 Oklahoma. The list includes tapir, bison, mammoth, mastodon, horn, deer, 

 giant sloth, and the ever-present turtle. The horns of the bison measure about 

 3 feet from tip to tip. Only one tapir has heretofore been reported from the 

 Great Plains region. The collection, as a whole, indicates Osborn's second 

 faunal zone, or else a forest group, the counterpart of the plains fauna of the 

 Equus beds. 



Dr. O. P. Hay added some very important points to the discussion of the 

 Bison, of which he has made a special study. It is diflSieult to identify species 



