Megatherium skeleton and cave bear teeth
Date
1850
Creator
S. Springsguth, Engraver
Object type
Library reference
20747
Material
Technique
Subject
Content object
Description
Study of a Megatherium skeleton, a now-extinct species of giant ground sloth, in left profile [above], and various cave bear, Ursus spelaeus, tooth specimens [below].
Inscribed above: ‘73’
Inscribed below: ‘S Springsguth. Delin et Sclupsit’
Plate 73 from A pictorial atlas of fossil remains, consisting of coloured illustrations selected from Parkinson’s Organic remains of a former world and Artis’s Antediluvian phytology […], by Gideon Algernon Mantell (London, 1850).
Written of the Megatherium in the associated description: ‘This extinct animal is named the Megatherium (gigantic wild animal) Cuvieri. It was seven feet high, and nine long, and therefore larger than the largest rhinoceros. It possessed no incisor teeth; and the grinders, which are seven inches long, are of a prismatic form, and like those of the sloths, are composed of dentine and cement. They are so formed that the crown always presents two cutting, wedge-shaped, salient angles; they are therefore admirably adapted for cutting and bruising vegetable substances. The entire fore-foot is about a yard in length, and armed with strong claws. The Megatherium held an intermediate place between the sloths, armadillos, and ant-eaters.’
Gideon Algernon Mantell (1790-1852), British surgeon and geologist, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1825.
Inscribed above: ‘73’
Inscribed below: ‘S Springsguth. Delin et Sclupsit’
Plate 73 from A pictorial atlas of fossil remains, consisting of coloured illustrations selected from Parkinson’s Organic remains of a former world and Artis’s Antediluvian phytology […], by Gideon Algernon Mantell (London, 1850).
Written of the Megatherium in the associated description: ‘This extinct animal is named the Megatherium (gigantic wild animal) Cuvieri. It was seven feet high, and nine long, and therefore larger than the largest rhinoceros. It possessed no incisor teeth; and the grinders, which are seven inches long, are of a prismatic form, and like those of the sloths, are composed of dentine and cement. They are so formed that the crown always presents two cutting, wedge-shaped, salient angles; they are therefore admirably adapted for cutting and bruising vegetable substances. The entire fore-foot is about a yard in length, and armed with strong claws. The Megatherium held an intermediate place between the sloths, armadillos, and ant-eaters.’
Gideon Algernon Mantell (1790-1852), British surgeon and geologist, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1825.
Related fellows
Gideon Algernon Mantell (1790 - 1852, British) , Surgeon
Associated place