Part 26

“How far the Megatherium is to be considered in the same light as the Megalonyx cannot be decided without an accurate and scientific examination of its skeleton at Madrid. Pander and D’Alton do not mention any distortion of the hind-foot, neither does their figure exhibit any. It is nevertheless quite possible that such may exist, but that it is disguised by the faulty manner in which the skeleton is put up. It strikes me as little probable that two animals which agree so well in the principal particulars of their organization should differ so much in one of the most important. The Megatherium has been proved by later discoveries to possess the same powerful tail as the Megalonyx, and as it corresponds also with the latter entirely in the conformation of its extremities, the same difficulties present themselves against the supposition of its having been a burrower. But if the Megatherium was really a climber, it must have had still more occasion (on account of its greater size), for that peculiar arrangement of the hind-feet which we have described in the Megalonyx.”

Footnote 60:

Descripcion del Esqueleto de un quadrupedo muy corpulento y raro, que se conserva en el Real Gabinete de Historia Natural de Madrid. Folio, Madrid, 1796.

Footnote 61:

Ossemens Fossiles, tom. v. pt. i. p. 179.

Footnote 62:

“Das Riesen Faulthier, Bradypus giganteus, von Dr. Chr. Pander und Dr. E. D’Alton.” Folio, Bonn, 1821.

Footnote 63:

Transactions of the Geological Society, 1835, p. 438.

Footnote 64:

An excellent translation of the description of the Brazilian fossils found by M. Lund, is published in the Annals of Natural History, July and August, 1839.

Footnote 65:

At the distance of a few leagues from the locality here mentioned, other fragments were found by Mr. Darwin; also near Santa Fé, in Entre Rios; also on the shores of the Laguna, near the Guardia del Monte, South of Buenos Ayres; also, according to the Jesuit Falkner, on the banks of the Tercero.

Footnote 66:

Mr. Darwin has more particularly described the circumstances of the embedment of this tooth in his Journal of Researches, p. 149, during the Voyage of the Beagle.

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. The Errata was corrected. 2. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling. 3. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. 4. Re-indexed footnotes using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter. 5. Enclosed italics font in underscores. 6. Denoted superscripts by a caret before a single superscript character, e.g. M^r.