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Pampatheriidae
Pampatheriidae ("Pampas beasts") is an extinct family of large plantigrade armored armadillos related to extant armadillos in the order Cingulata. However, pampatheriids have existed as a separate lineage since at least the middle Eocene Mustersan age, . Pampatheres evolved in South America during its long period of Cenozoic isolation. Although widespread, they were less diverse and abundant than the armadillos. ''Holmesina'' spread to North America after the formation of the Isthmus of Panama as part of the Great American Interchange. They finally disappeared on both continents in the end-Pleistocene extinctions, about 12,000 years ago. Description Pampatheres are believed to have attained a weight of up to . Like three-banded armadillos, and unlike glyptodonts, their armored shell was given some flexibility by three movable lateral bands of scutes. The osteoderms (bony plates in the skin comprising the armor) of pampatheres were each covered by a single keratinized scute, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cingulata
Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra, is an order of armored New World placental mammals. Dasypodids and chlamyphorids, the armadillos, are the only surviving families in the order. Two groups of cingulates much larger than extant armadillos (maximum body mass of 45 kg (100 lb) in the case of the giant armadillo) existed until recently: pampatheriids, which reached weights of up to 200 kg (440 lb) and chlamyphorid glyptodonts, which attained masses of 2,000 kg (4,400 lb) or more. The cingulate order originated in South America during the Paleocene epoch about 66 to 56 million years ago, and due to the continent's former isolation remained confined to it during most of the Cenozoic. However, the formation of a land bridge allowed members of all three families to migrate to southern North America during the Pliocene or early Pleistocene as part of the Great American Interchange. After surviving for tens of millions of years, all of the pampat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great American Interchange
The Great American Biotic Interchange (commonly abbreviated as GABI), also known as the Great American Interchange and the Great American Faunal Interchange, was an important late Cenozoic paleozoogeographic biotic interchange event in which land and freshwater fauna migrated from North America via Central America to South America and vice versa, as the volcanic Isthmus of Panama rose up from the sea floor and bridged the formerly separated continents. Although earlier dispersals had occurred, probably over water, the migration accelerated dramatically about 2.7 million years ( Ma) ago during the Piacenzian age. It resulted in the joining of the Neotropic (roughly South American) and Nearctic (roughly North American) biogeographic realms definitively to form the Americas. The interchange is visible from observation of both biostratigraphy and nature (neontology). Its most dramatic effect is on the zoogeography of mammals, but it also gave an opportunity for reptiles, amphibia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vassallia
''Vassallia'' is an extinct genus of cingulate belonging to the family Pampatheriidae. It lived between the Middle Oligocene and the Early Pliocene in what is now South America. Description This animal must have been very similar in shape and size to today's giant armadillo (''Priodontes maximus''); it is likely that the largest species of ''Vassallia maxima'' could have exceeded one meter in length. Like all pampatheres, ''Vassallia'' was also equipped with an armor consisting of osteoderms articulated with each other to form two rigid structures, one anterior and one posterior, and a few bands of movable osteoderms that allowed partial movement of the back. ''Vassallia'' was very similar to another pampathere, '' Kraglievichia'' from which it differed mainly in some dental features (the teeth had a somewhat simpler structure) and bony plates, which had a main figure with a slightly elevated central area. A study carried out on the dentition and morphology of jaw and mandi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quaternary Extinction Event
The Quaternary period (from 2.588 ± 0.005 million years ago to the present) has seen the extinctions of numerous predominantly megafaunal species, which have resulted in a collapse in faunal density and diversity and the extinction of key ecological strata across the globe. The most prominent event in the Late Pleistocene is differentiated from previous Quaternary pulse extinctions by the widespread absence of ecological succession to replace these extinct species, and the regime shift of previously established faunal relationships and habitats as a consequence. The earliest casualties were incurred at 130,000 BCE (the start of the Late Pleistocene), in Australia ~ 60,000 years ago, in Americas ~ 15,000 years ago, coinciding in time with the early human migrations. However, the great majority of extinctions in Afro-Eurasia and the Americas occurred during the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene epoch (13,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE). This extinction wave di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tonnicinctus
''Tonnicinctus'' is an extinct species of pampatheriid that lived in Argentina during the Pleistocene and Holocene. Description ''Tonnicinctus'' inhabited cool grassland regions. It was a medium-sized pampatheriid, smaller than its better-known relatives like '' Pampatherium'' and ''Holmesina ''Holmesina'' is a genus of pampathere, an extinct group of armadillo-like creatures that were distantly related to extant armadillos. Like armadillos, and unlike the other extinct branch of megafaunal cingulates, the glyptodonts, the shell wa ...''. It is distinguishes from other Pampathreres by: osteoderms which are intermediate in thickness between ''Pampatherium'' and ''Holmesina''; very wide anterior and lateral margins with several large and deep foramina; wide and uniform marginal elevation in the fixed osteoderms and very narrow marginal elevation in movable and semi-movable osteoderms of the scapular and pelvic buckler. References Prehistoric cingulates Pleistocene xe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holmesina 3 Clean
''Holmesina'' is a genus of pampathere, an extinct group of armadillo-like creatures that were distantly related to extant armadillos. Like armadillos, and unlike the other extinct branch of megafaunal cingulates, the glyptodonts, the shell was made up of flexible plates which allowed the animal to move more easily. ''Holmesina'' species were herbivores that grazed on coarse vegetation; armadillos are mostly insectivorous or omnivorous. ''Holmesina'' individuals were much larger than any modern armadillo: They could reach a length of , and a weight of , while the modern giant armadillo does not attain more than . Distribution They traveled north during the faunal interchange, and adapted well to North America, like the ground sloths, glyptodonts, armadillos, capybaras, and other South American immigrants. Their fossils are found from Brazil to the United States, mostly in Texas and Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holmesina
''Holmesina'' is a genus of pampathere, an extinct group of armadillo-like creatures that were distantly related to extant armadillos. Like armadillos, and unlike the other extinct branch of megafaunal cingulates, the glyptodonts, the shell was made up of flexible plates which allowed the animal to move more easily. ''Holmesina'' species were herbivores that grazed on coarse vegetation; armadillos are mostly insectivorous or omnivorous. ''Holmesina'' individuals were much larger than any modern armadillo: They could reach a length of , and a weight of , while the modern giant armadillo does not attain more than . Distribution They traveled north during the faunal interchange, and adapted well to North America, like the ground sloths, glyptodonts, armadillos, capybaras, and other South American immigrants. Their fossils are found from Brazil to the United States, mostly in Texas and Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kraglievichia
''Kraglievichia'' is an extinct genus of cingulate belonging to the family Pampatheriidae. It lived from the Late Miocene to the Early Pliocene, and its fossilized remains were discovered in South America. Description This animal looked like an enormous armadillo, with body dimensions comparable or larger than the modern giant armadillo ; its skull was 18 centimeters long. As for all its relatives, the pampatheres, the structure of the armor of ''Kraglievichia'' forbade it to curl up, as most modern armadillos does. The genus was characterized by the presence of four upper teeth and three lower teeth with an oval section, a characteristic differentiating it from the very similar but smaller ''Vassallia''. The osteoderms of its carapace had an elevated axial area, underlined by two lateral longitudinal depressions. Classification The genus ''Kraglievichia'' was established in 1927 by Castellanos, for a species of fossil cingulate first described in 1883 by Florentino Amegh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scirrotherium
''Scirrotherium'' is an extinct genus of pampatheres, a family of herbivorous cingulates, related to the similar but smaller modern armadillos, and with the now extinct glyptodonts, well-known from their shell-like armor. Its scientific name is derived from the Greek prefix "''skiros-''", "cover", and the suffix "-''therion'', "beast", while the name of the type species, ''hondaensis'', honors the town of Honda, in the Tolima Department of Colombia.G. Edmund and J. Theodor, 1997. A new giant pampatheriid armadillo. In: Kay RF, Madden RH, Cifelli RL, Flynn JJ, eds. Vertebrate paleontology in the Neotropics. The Miocene fauna of La Venta, Colombia, pp. 227–232. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press.Engelmann, G.F. ''Scirrotherium'' is one of several genera of xenarthrans found in the La Venta fauna, dated from the Middle Miocene. Description ''Scirrotherium'' is only known from an incomplete skull preserving teeth and a fragmentary mandible, as well as postcrani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glyptodont
Glyptodonts are an extinct subfamily of large, heavily armoured armadillos. They arose in South America around 48 million years ago and spread to southern North America after the continents became connected several million years ago. The best-known genus within the group is ''Glyptodon''. While they were formerly considered to constitute the distinct family Glyptodontidae, in 2016, an analysis of ''Doedicurus'' Mitochondrial DNA (also known as mtDNA / mDNA) found that it was, in fact, nested within the modern armadillos as the sister group of a clade consisting of Chlamyphorinae and Tolypeutinae. For this reason, glyptodonts and all armadillos but '' Dasypus'' were relocated to a new family, Chlamyphoridae, and glyptodonts were demoted from the former family Glyptodontidae to a subfamily. Evolution Glyptodonts first evolved during the Eocene in South America, which remained their center of species diversity. For example, an Early Miocene glyptodont with many primitive feature ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Machlydotherium
''Machlydotherium'' is an extinct genus of cingulate of uncertain systematic affinities, perhaps belonging to the Pampatheriidae. It lived from the Middle Eocene to the Early Oligocene, and its fossilized remains were found in South America. Description This animal is only known from isolated osteoderms, who were large and thick, quite similar to those of the later pampatheres. Some of these osteoderms, belonging to the fixed carapace typical of many cingulates, show the start of the differentiation of secondary figures, and large central follicles. The mobile osteoderms were distinguished from those of pampatheres by a little differentiated and rough surface. A bilobed tooth, similar to those of pampatheres, but whose abrasion surface draw a cusp in the anterior section, has also been attributed to the genus ''Machlydotherium''. Classification The genus ''Machlydotherium'' was first described in 1902 by Florentino Ameghino, the name itself being an anagram of '' Chlamydot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pampatherium
''Pampatherium'' is an extinct genus of xenarthran that lived in the Americas during the Pleistocene. Some species went extinct right at the Pleistocene-Holocene border. Distribution ''Pampatherium humboldtii'' and ''P. typum'' lived in South America (mostly Brazil) during the Pleistocene, with ''P. humboldtii'' surviving into the very Late Pleistocene. ''Pampatherium mexicanum'' was the only North American species, reaching as far north as Sonora, Mexico. It lived during the Rancholabrean. Description ''Pampatherium'' resembled a very large armadillo. One species, ''P. humboldtii'', weighed up to . Pampatheres generally resembled armadillos, particularly in the shape of it skull, long snout, and the presence of three areas on the carapace (movable bands, scapular and pelvic shields). Among the features that distinguish them from armadillos are their posterior teeth, which are bilobate rather than peg-like. Their endocranial morphology is also similar to glyptodonts. The osteod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
