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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 ¹ (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 XLI.). 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.