1841-42 A GIGANTIC SLOTH 189 



Gould, and his brother came here for some 

 music' 



The remainder of the year 1841 was spent by 

 Owen in collecting materials for his ' Report on the 

 British Fossil Mammalia' (British Association), 

 1842 and 1843. These reports were the basis of 

 his work, ' British Fossil Mammals and Birds ' 

 1844-1846, which formed one of the beautifully 

 illustrated series on British animals brought out 

 by his friend Van Voorst. 



At the beginning of 1842 Owen was working 

 upon his ' Description of the Skeleton of an Extinct 

 Gigantic Sloth (Mylodon robustus),' discovered 

 near the city of Buenos Ayres. The habits of 

 life of these extinct creatures were a complete 

 puzzle. Their teeth showed, by their simple 

 structure, that they lived on vegetable food, and 

 probably on the leaves or tender twigs of trees ; 

 their huge bodies and great strong curved claws, 

 Darwin remarks, ' seemed so little adapted for 

 locomotion that some eminent naturalists actually 

 believed that, like the sloths (to which they are 

 intimately related), they subsisted by climbing 

 back downwards on trees and feeding on the 

 leaves.' It was certainly a bold idea to conceive 

 even antediluvian trees with branches strong 

 enough to bear animals as big as elephants ! 

 Owen conjectured that, instead of climbing on the 

 trees, they pulled the branches down to them, 

 and tore up the smaller trees by the roots, and so 



