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Information about Glyptodont

Glyptodon
Fossil range: Pleistocene
Enlarge picture
Fossil specimen in Washington, DC at the
National Museum of Natural History

Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Superorder:Xenarthra
Order:Cingulata
Family:Glyptodontidae
Genus:Glyptodon
Owen, 1839


Glyptodon (Greek for "grooved or carved tooth") was a large, armored mammal, related to the armadillo, that lived during the Pleistocene Epoch. Flatter than a Volkswagen Beetle, but about the same general size and weight, the Glyptodon is believed to have been a herbivore, grazing on grasses and other plants found near rivers and small bodies of water. A large and heavy mammal, it could probably only have moved one or two miles per hour.

Its physical appearance superficially resembled the much earlier dinosaurian ankylosaurs, an example of the convergent evolution of unrelated lineages into similar forms.

Evolutionary history

Glyptodon are part of the placental group of mammals known as Xenarthra. This order of mammals includes anteaters, tree sloths, extinct ground sloths, and armadillos.

Glyptodon originated in South America and first appeared in the American Southwest after North and South America connected at the Isthmus of Panama, about 2.5 million years ago. They became extinct about 10,000 years ago. The native human population in their range is believed to have hunted them and used the shells of dead animals as shelters in inclement weather.[1][2]

Anatomy

Glyptodon were covered by a protective shell composed of more than 1,000 one inch-thick bony plates, called osteoderms or scutes. Each species of glyptodont had its own unique osteoderm pattern and shell type. With this protection they were armored like turtles, but unlike most turtles, could not withdraw their heads, so they developed a bony cap on the top of their skull. Even the tail of Glyptodon had a ring of bones for protection. Such a massive shell needed considerable support, evidenced by features such as fused vertebrae, short but massive limbs, and a broad shoulder girdle.(Lambert, 196)

The nasal passage was reduced with heavy muscle attachments for some unknown purpose. Some have speculated that the muscle attachments were for a proboscis, or trunk, much like that of a tapir or elephant. Most animals with a trunk, however, have nasal bones receding back on the skull, and glyptodons do not have this feature. The lower jaws were very deep and helped support massive chewing muscles to help chew the coarse fibrous plants that can be found along river and lake banks.
Enlarge picture
Glyptodon skull
Enlarge picture
Glyptodon foot


Predators of the Glyptodon could have included the sabre-toothed cat, although this predator would likely have struggled to turn the 1 to 2-ton animal over to reach its unprotected belly.

See also

Notes

1. ^ Fidalgo, F., et al. (1986) "Investigaciones arqueológicas en el sitio 2 de Arroyo Seco (Pdo. de Tres Arroyos, Pcia. de Buenos Aires, República Argentina)" In: Bryan, Alan (ed.) (1986) New evidence for the Pleistocene peopling of the Americas Peopling of the Americas Symposia Series, Center for the Study of Early Man, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, ISBN 0-912933-03-8, pp. 221-269, in Spanish
2. ^ Politis, Gustavo G. and Gutierrez, Maria A. (1998) "Gliptodontes y Cazadores-Recolectores de la Region Pampeana (Argentina)" Latin American Antiquity 9(2): pp.111-134 in Spanish

References

  • David Lambert and the Diagram Group. The Field Guide to Prehistoric Life. New York: Facts on File Publications, 1985. ISBN 0-8160-1125-7

Gallery

Glyptodon asper

Pleistocene epoch (IPA: /'plaɪstəsi:n/) on the geologic timescale is the period from 1,808,000 to 11,550 years BP. The Pleistocene epoch had been intended to cover the world's recent period of repeated glaciations.
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National Museum of Natural History is a museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The museum's collections total over 125 million specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, and human cultural
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conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing the conservation status of a species: not simply the number remaining, but the
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For other uses of the term, see Fossil (disambiguation)


FOSSIL is a standard for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under the DOS operating system.
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Mammalia
Linnaeus, 1758

Subclasses & Infraclasses
  • Subclass †Allotheria*
  • Subclass Prototheria
  • Subclass Theria

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Xenarthra
Cope, 1889

Orders and suborders
  • Order Cingulata
  • Order Pilosa
* Suborder Folivora
* Suborder Vermilingua

See text for more details
The superorder Xenarthra
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Cingulata
Illiger, 1811

Families
  • Pampatheriidae (prehistoric)
  • Glyptodontidae (prehistoric)
  • Dasypodidae


Armadillos are small placental mammals, known for having a bony armor shell.
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Glyptodontidae

Genera

Doedicurus
Glyptodon (type)
Glyptotherium

Glyptodonts were large relatives of modern armadillos.
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Sir Richard Owen KCB (July 20 1804–December 18 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and palaeontologist. He was widely regarded as malicious and dishonest but he was also one of the most brilliant and influential biologists of his time.
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18th century - 19th century - 20th century
1800s  1810s  1820s  - 1830s -  1840s  1850s  1860s
1836 1837 1838 - 1839 - 1840 1841 1842

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Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
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Mammalia
Linnaeus, 1758

Subclasses & Infraclasses
  • Subclass †Allotheria*
  • Subclass Prototheria
  • Subclass Theria

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Cingulata
Illiger, 1811

Families
  • Pampatheriidae (prehistoric)
  • Glyptodontidae (prehistoric)
  • Dasypodidae


Armadillos are small placental mammals, known for having a bony armor shell.
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Pleistocene epoch (IPA: /'plaɪstəsi:n/) on the geologic timescale is the period from 1,808,000 to 11,550 years BP. The Pleistocene epoch had been intended to cover the world's recent period of repeated glaciations.
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The geological time scale is used by geologists and other scientists to describe the timing and relationships between events that have occurred during the history of Earth.
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Volkswagen Type 1, more commonly known as the Beetle, is an economy car produced by the German automaker Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003. Although the names "Beetle" and "Bug" were quickly adopted by the public, it was not until August of 1967 that VW itself began using the
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Herbivory is a form of predation in which an organism known as an herbivore, consumes principally autotrophs[1] such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria.
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Grass is a common word that generally describes a monocotyledonous green plant in the family Gramineae (Poaceae). True grasses include most plants grown as grains, for pasture, and for lawns (turf).
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Plantae
Haeckel, 1866[1]

Divisions

Green algae
  • Chlorophyta
  • Charophyta
Land plants (embryophytes)
  • Non-vascular land plants (bryophytes)

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Mammalia
Linnaeus, 1758

Subclasses & Infraclasses
  • Subclass †Allotheria*
  • Subclass Prototheria
  • Subclass Theria

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Ankylosauria
Osborn, 1923

Families

Ankylosauridae
Nodosauridae

Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the order Ornithischia.
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In evolutionary biology, convergent evolution is the process whereby organisms not closely related (not monophyletic), independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches[1].
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Xenarthra
Cope, 1889

Orders and suborders
  • Order Cingulata
  • Order Pilosa
* Suborder Folivora
* Suborder Vermilingua

See text for more details
The superorder Xenarthra
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Vermilingua
Illiger, 1811

Families

Cyclopedidae
Myrmecophagidae
Anteaters are the four mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua commonly known for eating ants and termites.
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Folivora
Delsuc et al, 2001

Families

Megalonychidae
Bradypodidae
†Rathymotheriidae
†Scelidotheriidae
†Mylodontidae
†Orophodontidae
†Megatheriidae

Sloths
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extinction is the cessation of existence of a species or group of taxa, reducing biodiversity. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species (although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point).
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Ground sloths are a diverse group of extinct edentate (Superorder Xenarthra) mammals that are believed to be relatives of tree sloths and three-toed sloths. They may have died out as recently as 1550 in Hispaniola and Cuba (Nowak, 1999), but had long since been extinct on the
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