Identifier: annualreporto18191865newy (find matches)
Title: Annual report of the regents of the university of the state of New York on the condition of the State Cabinet of Natural History and the historical and antiquarian collection annexed thereto
Year: 1853 (1850s)
Authors: New York State Museum
Subjects: Science
Publisher: Albany, Regents of the University of the State of New York
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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g M HH O o o 8 o o THE WADSWORTH GALLERY. 21 5.
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Hind extremities of the Megatherium. 22 EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT ON THE STATE CABINET. dom. To the tongue of a Giraffe and the proboscis of a Tapir, there wagadded the power of rotating the I ones of the forearm. These prehensileorgans were suited to a leaf-feeder. That the animal was not carnivorous, issettled by the structure of its molar teeth : it lacks incisors ; therefore itwas not a Kuminant. But if the great animal fed on foliage, how did it ob-tain it? The Elephant gathers its food with a long proboscis. The Giraffe,standing on stilt-like forelegs, and reaching out its attenuated neck, plucksthe high branches with long flexible lips and muscular tongue. The Mega-therium could imitate neither. Did it climb like the Sloth? Such was theconjecture of the Danish Naturalist, Dr. Lund ; but the clumsy make andthe immense bulk and weight of the creature forbid it. The structure of theforefeet, moreover, militates against the theory ; for the outer digit is hoof-like, as if made for t

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