Meerschaum
a peculiar silicated magnesian mineral found in several parts of Europe, but mostly in Greece and Turkey. In the last-mentioned country it is extensively used as fullers' earth; but in Austria and Germany it is adapted to the manufacture of tobacco pipes.
MEERUT (mē'-), or more correctly MERATH (me'räth), a town, district, and division in the Northwestern Prov. inces of British India. The town lies 40 miles N. E. of Delhi, about half-way between the Ganges and the Jumna. Here in 1857 the great mutiny broke out. Pop. about 116,000.
MEGÆRA (me-jē'rä), one of the Furies.
MEGALONYX (-lon'iks), a genus of large, sloth-like edentates from the post- Pliocene of North America. It has the same dental formula as Megatherium and Mylodon. The fore limbs are shorter than the hind limbs, and the calcaneum is excessively long. The animal was named in 1797 by Jefferson, President of the United States, who thought the remains MEGALOSAURUS were those of a gigantic carnivore at least five feet in height. Cuvier was the first to recognize Megalonyx as an edentate.
MEGALOSAURUS (-sâ'rus), a gigantic Oölitic reptile of the Deinosauria (Orthoscelida, Huxley), occurring also in the Weald Clay. Its length has been variously estimated from 40 to 50 feet.
Owen says that some of the remains "indicate a reptile of at least 30 feet in length." As the cylindrical bones contain medullary cavities, it is clear that Megalosaurus was terrestrial. That it was carnivorous is evidenced by the teeth.
MEGATHERIUM New Hebrides, the N. portion of Australia, in New Guinea and the neighboring islands, in the Celebes, the Pelew islands, the Ladrones, the Philippines, Labuan, and the Nicobars. They are about the size of small fowls, the head generally crested, the tail very short, feet enormously developed, and, with the exception of Megapodius wallacii, from the Mollucas, have somber plumage. backed whale. M. longimana is the MEGAPTERA (-gap'tur-ä), the humplong-finned whale, found in the Atlantic area, as far as Davis' Straits; M. lalandii is the Cape humpback, from the SKELETON OF MEGALOSAURUS The oldest known beds from which any remains of Megalosaurus have been obtained are at the Lower Oölites at Selsby Hill and Chipping Norton, Gloucestershire, England.
MEGALOTIS (-ō'tis), a genus of Candidæ, differing from other members of the family in its dental formula, which approximates to that of the Civets. It contains but a single species, M. lalandii, the long-eared fox.