MACROTHEELOI. 381 



which one sees in the large claw-bones of the Pangolins. This 

 question Cnvier answered, by the proportions of the short- 

 tailed Manis, as being not less than 24 French feet : but more 

 moderate dimensions are indicated by certain other bones of 

 the skeleton subsequently discovered in France. These dis- 

 coveries have likewise rectified the absolute application of 

 the correlative law to the determination of the genus as w T ell 

 as of the order. The relation of the double-jointed and cleft 

 phalanx to the Edentate organization is confirmed ; but the 

 additional fossils, and especially some evidences of teeth, have 

 shewn that the Macrotherium belonged to a peculiar and now 

 extinct genus intermediate between the Manis and the Oryc- 

 teropus. And these relations are deeply interesting, on account 

 of the geographical position of both those edentate genera, 

 on tracts of land, viz., which are now most contiguous to the 

 continent containing the remains of the extinct osculant 

 genus. The locality in France is the village of Sansan, near 

 Auch, department of Gers, Haute-Pyrenees. The formation 

 is a lacustrine deposit of the miocene period. 



Portions of two molar teeth have been there found, 1 inch 8 

 lines in greatest transverse diameter ; the tooth preserving the 

 same size and shape through the whole length of the portion 

 — viz., 1 J inch. They resemble in shape those of the Orycte- 

 rope, but are less regular and have not the same tubular 

 tissue. The humerus differs from that of the ant-eaters and 

 armadillos by its greater length in proportion to its breadth ; 

 and approaches that in the Megatherioids and sloths, not only 

 in its relative length, but in the flattening at the distal end, 

 and the imperforate character of that end. The radius also 

 presents a sloth-like character in its greater proportionate 

 length, which exceeds that of the humerus. In both the Pan- 

 golin and Orycterope, the radius is shorter than the humerus. 

 The ulna differs from both that of the Pangolin and Orycte- 

 rope, and still more from that in the Armadillos, by the much 



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