There are
indications that the snout was prolonged, and more or less flexible;
and the tongue was probably prehensile. From the characters of
the molar teeth it is certain that the Megathere was purely
herbivorous in its habits; and from the enormous size and weight
of the body, it is equally certain that it could not have imitated
its modern allies, the Sloths, in the feat of climbing, back
downwards, amongst the trees. It is clear, therefore, that the
Megathere sought its sustenance upon the ground; and it was
originally supposed to have lived upon roots. By a masterly piece
of deductive reasoning, however, Professor Owen showed that this
great "Ground-Sloth" must have truly lived upon the foliage of
trees, like the existing Sloths--but with this difference, that
instead of climbing amongst the branches, it actually uprooted
the tree bodily. In this _tour de force_, the animal sat upon its
huge haunches and mighty tail, as on a tripod, and then grasping
the trunk with its powerful arms, either wrenched it up by the
roots or broke it short off above the ground. Marvellous as this
may seem, it can be shown that every detail in the skeleton of the
Megathere accords with the supposition that it obtained its food
in this way. Similar habits were followed by the allied _Mylodon_
(fig. 261), another of the great "Ground-Sloths," which inhabited
South America during the Post-Pliocene period.
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