Megasthenes (Gr. , great, and strength), a name given by Dana to one of the grand divisions of the non-marsupial or higher mammals, as indicating a superior type, based on a larger and more powerful plan of structure. This division includes the monkeys, carnivora, herbivora, and cetaceans. He has given the name of rnicrosthenes ( , small, and strength) to the inferior, based on a weak type of structure; this division includes the bats, insectivora, rodents, and edentates. The marsupials and monotremes constitute the still lower division of semi-oviparans or ootocoids; and man forms alone the highest or fourth division, the archonts. The parallelism between the megasthenes and rnicrosthenes is, according to him, complete; the bats in the latter represent the monkeys in the former; the insectivora represent the carnivora, the rodents the herbivora, and the edentates the cetaceans.