Description of the skeleton of an extinct gigantic sloth : Mylodon robutus, Owen, with observations on the osteology, natural affinities, and probable habits of the megatherioid quadrupeds in general / by Richard Owen.

  • Owen, Richard, 1804-1892.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Description of the skeleton of an extinct gigantic sloth : Mylodon robutus, Owen, with observations on the osteology, natural affinities, and probable habits of the megatherioid quadrupeds in general / by Richard Owen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    or THB SKELETON OF THE MYLODON ROBUSTUS. Introduction. The Skeleton which is the subject of the present Memoir was discovered in the year 1841 by M. Pedro de Angelis, seven leagues north of the city of Buenos Ayres, in the fluvatile deposits constituting the extensive plain inter- sected by the great Rio Plata and its tributaries, and which has been raised during a recent geological epoch above the level of the sea*. In this formation, and most probably anterior to its elevation, the animal must have been buried entire ; and, if the present heat of the climate prevailed, soon after its death: for the parts of the skeleton were found little disturbed, and the very few bones that are wanting are such as would be likely to escape the search of the most diligent collector. About the same time, and near the same place, a tesselated osseous carapace of some large quadruped, like an Armadillo, was exhumed ; and information of this discovery having been communicated to the Royal College of Surgeons by Sir Woodbine Parish, late H.M. Charge d'Affaires at Buenos Ayres, both this carapace and the above-mentioned skeleton were purchased by the College. They arrived in November 1841, in many pieces, fragile from the loss of the * See the Geological Introduction by Mr. Darwin to the Description of the Fossil Mammalia dis-