Seventhly, An
Extinct Kind Of Horse, To Which I Shall Have Again To Refer.
Eighthly, A Tooth Of A Pachydermatous Animal, Probably The
Same With The Macrauchenia, A Huge Beast With A Long Neck
Like A Camel, Which I Shall Also Refer To Again.
Lastly, the
Toxodon, perhaps one of the strangest animals ever discovered:
in size it equalled an elephant or megatherium,
But
the structure of its teeth, as Mr. Owen states, proves
indisputably that it was intimately related to the Gnawers, the
order which, at the present day, includes most of the smallest
quadrupeds: in many details it is allied to the Pachydermata:
judging from the position of its eyes, ears, and nostrils,
it was probably aquatic, like the Dugong and Manatee,
to which it is also allied. How wonderfully are the different
Orders, at the present time so well separated, blended together
in different points of the structure of the Toxodon!
The remains of these nine great quadrupeds, and many
detached bones, were found embedded on the beach, within
the space of about 200 yards square. It is a remarkable
circumstance that so many different species should be found
together; and it proves how numerous in kind the ancient
inhabitants of this country must have been. At the distance
of about thirty miles from Punta Alta, in a cliff of red earth,
I found several fragments of bones, some of large size.
Among them were the teeth of a gnawer, equalling in size
and closely resembling those of the Capybara, whose habits
have been described; and therefore, probably, an aquatic
animal. There was also part of the head of a Ctenomys; the
species being different from the Tucutuco, but with a close
general resemblance. The red earth, like that of the Pampas,
in which these remains were embedded, contains, according
to Professor Ehrenberg, eight fresh-water and one salt-water
infusorial animalcule; therefore, probably, it was an estuary
deposit.
The remains at Punta Alta were embedded in stratified
gravel and reddish mud, just such as the sea might now wash
up on a shallow bank. They were associated with twenty-
three species of shells, of which thirteen are recent and four
others very closely related to recent forms. [1] From the bones
of the Scelidotherium, including even the knee-cap, being
intombed in their proper relative positions, and from the
osseous armour of the great armadillo-like animal being so
well preserved, together with the bones of one of its legs, we
may feel assured that these remains were fresh and united by
their ligaments, when deposited in the gravel together with
the shells. [2] Hence we have good evidence that the above
enumerated gigantic quadrupeds, more different from those
of the present day than the oldest of the tertiary quadrupeds
of Europe, lived whilst the sea was peopled with most
of its present inhabitants; and we have confirmed that remarkable
law so often insisted on by Mr. Lyell, namely, that
the "longevity of the species in the mammalia is upon the
whole inferior to that of the testacea." [3]
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