Megatherium and Fossil Bears.
Fig. 1, is a sketch, on a very small scale, of the skeleton of a colossal extinct animal of the Sloth tribe, discovered in the alluvial deposits of the Pampas, and preserved in the museum at Madrid. A plaster model of a skeleton, restored from the remains of various individuals, dispersed in different collections, is just completed, and exhibited to the public in the Gallery of Organic Remains of the British Museum.[77] This extinct animal is named the Megatherium (gigantic wild animal) Cuvieri. It was seven feet high, and nine long, and therefore larger than the largest rhinoceros. It possessed no incisor teeth; and the grinders, which are seven inches long, are of a prismatic form, and like those of the sloths, are composed of dentine and cement. They are so formed that the crown always presents two cutting, wedge-shaped, salient angles; they are therefore admirably adapted for cutting and bruising vegetable substances. The entire fore-foot is about a yard in length, and armed with strong claws. The Megatherium held an intermediate place between the sloths, armadillos, and ant-eaters. The celebrated specimens of different parts of the skeleton of this colossal creature, preserved in the Hunterian Museum of the College of Surgeons of England, were collected and presented by Sir Woodbine Parish.
[77] See Wonders of Geology, pp. 164-167.
Fig. 2. The hindmost grinder of the upper jaw of the Fossil Bear (Ursus spelæus) of the Caverns, from Gaylenreuth.[78]
[78] Ibid. vol. i. p. 176.
Fig. 3. The middle upper grinder.
Fig. 4. The foremost upper grinder.
Fig. 5. The hindmost grinder of the lower jaw.
Fig. 6. The penultimate grinder of the lower jaw.
Fig. 7. The antepenultimate lower grinder.