Fig. 185.—Schistopleuron typus. One-twentieth natural size.
The Schistopleuron does not differ essentially from the Glyptodon, but is supposed to have been a different species of the same genus; the chief difference between the two animals being in the structure of the tail, which is massive in the first and in the other composed of half a score of rings. In other respects the organisation and habits are similar, both being herbivorous, and feeding on roots and vegetables. [Fig. 185] represents the Schistopleuron typus restored, and as it appeared when alive.
Some of the fossil Tortoises discovered in the sub-Himalayan beds possessed a carapace twelve feet long by six feet in breadth, which must have corresponded to an animal from eighteen to twenty feet in length; and the bones of the legs were as massive as those of the Rhinoceros.
The Megatherium, or Animal of Paraguay, as it was called, is, at first view, the oddest and most remarkable animal we have yet had under consideration, where all have been, according to our notions, strange, extraordinary, and formidable. The animal creation still goes on as if—
“Nature made them and then broke the die.”