NOTICE OF THE MEGATHERIUM. 
23 
Nor need we complain because we cannot tell positively, which of them first left the 
stage of existence, nor how many years it is since the last member of the race became extinct- 
We feel confident that they were not extirpated by human agency, that no primaeval Indians 
disputed the lordship of the plains with the Edentate giants. Nor was the glacial period the 
agent of their destruction, for they lived subsequently to that event. We conclude that all, 
both small and great, were annihilated one after another, in the lapse of indefinite ages, “ by 
those changes of circumstances in the organic and inorganic world which are always in prog- 
ress, and are capable in the course of time of greatly modifying the physical geography, 
climate, and all other conditions on which the continuance upon the earth of any living being 
must depend.”* 
Comparative Table of Dimensions of Megatherium Cuvieri, and adnlt 
(female) Asiatic Elephant, 
Head. 
Length of skull (from occipital condyles to front of upper maxillaries). 
Greatest vertical height of ditto 
Breadth across widest part of zygomatic arches 
Circumference in occipital region 
Length of lower jaw 
Vertebral Column. 
Length of the Cervical region 
“ “ dorsal region 
“ “ lumbar region „ 
“ “ sacral region 
“ a tail 
Breadth of largest caudal vertebrae 
Whole length of vertebral columnf 
Anterior Extremity. 
Length of Scapula 
Breadth of “ 
Length of Clavicle 
Length of Humerus 
Breadth of distal end 
Length of TJlna 
Length of Radius 
Circumference of middle of fore-arm, 
Length of fore-foot 
Breadth of “ 
Length of Ungual phalanx of middle digit 
Vertical diameter of ditto near the middle.. 
Whole length of fore-leg, with foot 
Megatherium. 
Feet. Inches. 
Elephant. 
Feet. Inches. 
2 7 
2 10f 
1 7 
3 6 
1 6 
2 4 
1 
2 3f 
2 3 
2 2f 
2 1 
1 3f 
5 10 
4 5f 
1 3 
8 
1 4 
n 
4 6 
4 11 
1 9 
7 
15 
12 If 
2 6i 
2 4J 
1 H 
2 1 
1 3 
wanting 
2 3 
2 8f 
1 3 
m 
2 1£ 
2 4f 
2 2 
2 2i 
1 8 
1 3 
2 4 
1 1 
m 
6 
7 4 
* Lyell’s Manual of Geology. 
j* The length of the vertebral column is measured upon the skeleton of the Megatherium, as it is mounted, 
without the intervertebral cartilages ; the same was true of the Elephant’s skeleton measured by Cuvier. 
