"It would've been hard to flip them over or to have broken into their shells," McDonald said. Second, a large body mass would have produced more heat under the shell, keeping the animal warmer under increasingly colder temperatures. Flynn and Croft's team determined that the early armadillo relative lived at about 3,000 feet above sea level in an open savannah with relatively few trees. The site, now at 14,000 feet, gradually rose to become part of the Andes mountain range. They based that conclusion on ancient plant fossils recovered at the site, along with several hundred fossil mammal specimens representing 18 species of armadillos and glyptodonts, rodents, relatives of modern opossums and several now-extinct hoofed mammals. A paper on the finds has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Other researchers expressed amazement over the discovery. Alfredo Carlini, a paleontologist at the Museo de La Plata in Argentina, said the new armored mammal "is a perfect piece in the Glyptodontoidea puzzle" that "fits perfectly" with his own theories about how this group evolved. Tim Gaudin, U.C. Foundation Professor in the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, said, "It is the oldest glyptodont known from any significant skeletal remains. Other early glyptodonts are known only from scraps of skeletons-isolated bones or small pieces of the carapace." The glyptodonts, which Gaudin described as "the most peculiar group of mammals known to paleontologists," disappeared when humans arrived in the New World. "Glyptodont on the half shell likely was a popular food," McDonald deadpanned. Related Links: Jennifer Viegas' blog: Born Animal |
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