The treasury of natural history, or, A popular dictionary of zoology / by Samuel Maunder.
- Maunder, Samuel, 1785-1849.
- Date:
- 1870
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The treasury of natural history, or, A popular dictionary of zoology / by Samuel Maunder. Source: Wellcome Collection.
798/856 (page 776)
![camelinc Ruminants, whose fossil remains have been discovered in South America. These animals were of gigantic proportions as compared with the existing Llamas of that continent, which in other respects, however, they appear to have very closely resembled. MACROTHERIUM. The generic name employed by Lartet to characterise an extinct edentate animal, whose fossil remains occur in the tertiary beds of Eppelsheim in Hesse- Darmstadt, and also in a lacustrine formation near Auch, Hatites-Pyrtinees. This animal formerly represented in Europe the now existing ant-eaters of South America, as well as the Pangolins and Orycteropua of the adjacent African continent. Its anatomical peculiarities oscillate principally between Mania and the last-named genus ; but it also bore some characters common to the sloths. MEGACEROS. A genus of the Deer fa- mily, the bones of which are found in various parts of Ireland, in the shell marl, below the peat or bog earth. The gigantic Irish Deer or Fossil Elk, os it has been called (Mega- ceros hibemicus, Owen), was an immense creature. Specimens have been found, which measured, from the foot to the summit of the antlers, ten feet and four inches ; while the measurement from the tip of one antler to another, in full-grown specimens, was from ten to twelve feet. The horns are very wide, and from being flattened out, somewhat as in the Elk or Moose, were regarded by some of the older naturalists as having belonged to a variety of that animal. To support these immense horns, the vertebrie of the neck were of much larger size than in any existing species of deer, while the legs were of stronger proportions. The skull and antlers of a spe- cimen in the Museum of the Royal Dublin Society weigh eighty-seven pounds. It was once thought that the females of this im- mense creature must have been horned equally with the male, as in the recent rein- deer : the late researches of Professor Owen have shown that the female was hornless, as in our Fallow Deer and Red Stag. Remains of this Deer have been found in the Isle of Man and in different parts of England, such as Norfolk, Essex, and Lan- cashire; but they have never occurred to the extent that they are met with in Ireland. They seem to have become extinct before the introduction of man on the British Islands. One naturalist, from the appearances exhi- bited by a perforated rib, thought that the hole must have been produced by a sharp- pointed instrument, which did not penetrate so far as to enuse the animal's death, hut which remained long enough in the opening I to alter the growth of the bone. Professor Owen, however, has shown that an arrow- I head, of the dimensions fitted to make such a hole, and sticking in a rib with its point in the chest, must have soon killed the animal, by piercing the contiguous viscera nnd pro- ducing inflammation. He shows that the instrument which pierced the rib must have been instantly withdrawn, and not left to impede the growth of the bone, and con- cludes that, as male stags are very combative. [ the injury was most likely produced by the pointed branch of the formidable antler. The bones of the Megaceroa are generally I of a dark-brown colour, with patches of the I blue phosphate of iron : and in some in- i stances, the hollows of the long bones have i contained marrow so fresh os almost to re- semble suet. MICROLESTES. A genus of extinct Mar- supials possessing extraordinary palaeontolo- gical interest from the circumstance that it at present constitutes the earliest record of mam- malian life upon our planet. In regard to it. Prof. Owen observes, that the “teeth from Germun and English trios indicate a very small insectivorous quadruped, to which the above generic name was given by Prof. Plie- ninger. The German specimens were dis- covered in 1847, in u bone breccia at Dieger- loch, about two miles from Stuttgarrit, the geological relations of which are well deter- mined, as between lias and Keuper sand- stone.” In the year 1858. Mr. Charles Moore, F.G.S., discovered four teeth in this country at Frome, and these having been submitted to the scrutiny of our great palaeontologist, were also determined by him to be referable to the same genus. Among living marsu- pials the Microlestes presents a tolerably near approach to the Australian genus Myr- mtcobxns, but it is still nearer in affinity to the extinct Plagiaulax [which see below], MICROTHERIUM. A genus of Terr small herbivorous mammals, whose fossil remains are abundant in the lacustrine cal- careous eocene beds of the Puy-de-DOme, in France. Their affinities appear to connect them in some degree with existing ruminants, but more closely to the extinct Anoploihe- rium. MOSASATJRUS. A genus of extinct gi- gantic marine Lizards,whose skeletal remains huve been found in the cretaceous strata of Europe and North America. In England a small species (M. gracilis) has been discovered in the county of Sussex. The skull of a large European species (if. Hofmann?) measure? as much ns five feet in length, the original cranium being found at St. Peter's Mount, near Mnestricht, in the year 1780. A glance at the restored Mosnsaurus in the Crystal Palace Garden- at Sydenham will best con- vey an accurate conception of the vast mag- nitude of this lncertian monster. The Ame- rican species bus been named Masasaurus Maximillianu MYLODON ROBUSTUS. The combined generic nnd scientific title applied by Prof. Owen to a remarkable form of extinct Sloth, whose fossil remains were discovered in a pleistocene fluviatile deposit not far from the city of Buenos Ayres, South America, in the year 1841. An almost entire skeleton of this animal (which is here figured) may be seen in tht Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in a most excellent state r preservation. At the instance of the Council of the College, this splendid relic of past greatness amongst the sloths has been specially described and figured in a magnifi- cent quarto work bv their former Hunterian](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24864201_0798.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
