. Catalogue of casts of fossils, from the principal museums of Europe and America, with short descriptions and illustrations. Fossils. 14 VEKTEBRATA. upon the same streams, and, reaching the quiet waters, sank down in their muddy bed. The whole area has since been elevated; the estuary mud has been con- verted into wide and level plains, and the shores and submarine banks of a former sea now form low headlands along the present coast. It was in this recent forma- tion—referable to the Pleistocene period, because most of its shells are still living in the ocean—that the Megatherium was entombed
. Catalogue of casts of fossils, from the principal museums of Europe and America, with short descriptions and illustrations. Fossils. 14 VEKTEBRATA. upon the same streams, and, reaching the quiet waters, sank down in their muddy bed. The whole area has since been elevated; the estuary mud has been con- verted into wide and level plains, and the shores and submarine banks of a former sea now form low headlands along the present coast. It was in this recent forma- tion—referable to the Pleistocene period, because most of its shells are still living in the ocean—that the Megatherium was entombed. Its bones are almost exclu- sively found in the cliffs and steep banks of rivers; thus far the Rivers Salado and Luxan. The race was not exterminated by some great cataclysm; for the small bones, like the kneecap, of a cotemporary mammal were discovered by Darwin in the same deposit, all lying in their proper relative position. Like the Aborigines of our own continent, like the Dodo of Mauritius, the Edentate giants perished one after another, in the lapse of infinite ages, by those changes of cir- cumstances in the organic and inorganic world which are always in progress. The Megatherium was buried in a hecatomb of extinct monsters. By its side we find the bones of the kindred Mylodon, Megalonyx and Scelidotherium, all of them Sloths ; the Glyptodon and Schistopleurum, the Toxodon and Mastodon, the Machairodus and Macrauchenia. The Megatherium and its associates have been discovered in the Pleistocene deposits of the United States ; but South America was then, as it is now, the metropolis of the Edentates. This model consists of 124 different casts, representing more than 175 bones.* Price, packed but not painted, $ No. 24. Megatherium Cuvieri, Desm. Skull and Lower Jaw. Size, 32 x 24, Price, mounted, $15,00. No. 25. Megatherium Cuvieri, Desm. Lower Jaw. Size, 27x20. Price, $ No. 26. Megatherium Cuvieri, Desm. Tooth. Size, 7x2. Price, $ Please note that
Size: 2299px × 1087px
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License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectfossils, bookyear1866
