GIANT SLOTHS AND ARMADILLOS.
“Injecta monstris terra dolet suis.”
Horace, Odes, book iii.
It would have been strange, considering how much we owe to North America, had the great South American continent not enriched our knowledge of past forms of life on the globe. But such is not the case. The honours are, as it were, divided, although it must be admitted that the North American extinct forms at present known are far more numerous. There are, however, two or three “Extinct Monsters” of very great interest which once had a home in South America—in that strange region of the Pampas, where the naturalist of the present day finds so much to excite his interest. Of these the present chapter treats.
The Megatherium[48] (Cuvier) was a gigantic mammal allied to sloths and ant-eaters, and perhaps to the armadillos. In its skull and teeth this colossus of the past resembled the sloths, in its limbs and backbone it resembled the ant-eaters, while in size it surpassed the largest rhinoceros ([Plate XVII.]). The famous, but imperfect, specimen at Madrid was for a long time the principal if not the only source of information with regard to this extinct genus, and for nearly a century it remained unique.
[48] Greek—megas, great; therion, beast.
Later on, however, the zeal and energy of Sir Woodbine Parish, his late Majesty’s chargé-d’affaires at Buenos Ayres, greatly helped to augment the materials for arriving at a just conclusion with regard to its proper place in the animal kingdom. According to one writer, Spain formerly possessed considerable parts of three different skeletons. The first and most complete is that which is preserved in the royal cabinet at Madrid. This was sent over in 1789, by the Marquis of Loreto, Viceroy of Buenos Ayres, with a notice stating that it was found on the banks of the river Luxan. In 1795 a second specimen arrived from Lima, and other portions, probably not very considerable, were in the possession of Father Fernando Scio, to whom they had been presented by a lady from Paraguay. But two German doctors, Messrs. Pander and D’Alton, who published in 1821 a beautiful monograph on the subject, state that they were unable in 1818 to find any traces of either the Lima specimen or that which had belonged to Fernando Scio.
The remains collected by Sir Woodbine Parish were discovered in the river Salado, which runs through the flat alluvial plains (Pampas) to the south of the city of Buenos Ayres, after a succession of three unusually dry seasons, “which lowered the waters in an extraordinary degree, and exposed parts of the pelvis to view as it stood upright in the bottom of the river.”[49]