424 
animal for leaping, or running, must be obvious : it could only have 
walked, and that slowly. 
The scapula possesses, on a large scale, the same proportions as 
that of the sloths ; and the clavicles which this animal possesses, with 
the unau, shows how widely it differs from the elephant, rhinoceros, 
and other large ruminants, which have not this bone ; and with the 
length of the phalanges which carry the nails, prove that this animal 
employed its fore-feet for the purpose of seizing, and perhaps of 
climbing. 
The humerus of the megatherium is remarkable for the width of 
its lower part, produced by the large surface of cristae placed above 
the condyles, and serving for the attachment of muscles, which must 
have been very considerable, and of course must have given the 
animal prodigious powers in the fore extremities. This considerable 
width of the lower extremity of this bone is also found in the ant- 
eater, which employs his enormous claws to allow him to hang from 
the branches of trees, or to tear up the solid nests of the termites. In 
the ant-eater the width is three-fifths of the length of the bone, whilst 
in this animal it is a half, as it is also in the long-tailed manis ( manis 
tetradactyla ) . In the rhinoceros the width is only one-third, and in 
the elephant one-fourth of the length. 
The olecranon of this animal is of such a length, as to give con- 
siderable power to the extensors ; but, in the sloth, this bone is 
extremely short. The radius, as in the sloth, turns freely on the 
cubitus. In the skeleton at Madrid, and in its annexed representation, 
it must be observed that this bone has been reversed in the mounting, 
the humeral end being placed downwards. 
The hand rested entirely on the ground whilst the animal walked. 
The visible fingers, armed with claws, are three in number ; the two 
others being hidden under the skin, as in the a'i, and as three are in 
the unau and two-toed ant-eater. The bones of the metacarpus are 
not joined together, as in the a'i. 
