Fossil skeleton of a Great Beast; Megatherium; an extinct elephant-sized ground sloth of the Pliocene to Pleistocene. Copperplate stipple engraving from Frederic Cuvier's 鈥楧ictionary of Natural Science: Mammals;' Paris; France; 1816. Illustration by J. G. Pretre; engraved by Massard; directed by Pierre Jean-Francois Turpin; and published by F.G. Levrault. Jean Gabriel Pretre (1780~1845) was painter of natural history at Empress Josephine's zoo and later became artist to the Museum of Natural History. Turpin (1775-1840) is considered one of the greatest French botanical illustrators of the 19th century.