megalonyx Palæont.
(mɛgəˈlɒnɪks)
[mod.L., f. Gr. µεγαλο- great (see megalo-) + ὄνυξ claw.]
A large fossil sloth-like edentate from the post-pliocene strata of North America.
| 1797 Jefferson Writ. (1859) IV. 195 The Megalonyx, as we [? sc. the American Philosophical Society] have named him. 1813 Byron in Moore Lett. & Jrnls. (1830) I. 461 The Mammoth and Megalonyx. 1839 Penny Cycl. XV. 73/1 The Megalonyxes were provided with a tail. |
| attrib. 1887 Amer. Naturalist XXI. 459 The Megalonyx Beds. |