''Neoglyptatelus'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

xenarthran Xenarthra (; from Ancient Greek ξένος, xénos, "foreign, alien" + ἄρθρον, árthron, "joint") is a major clade of placental mammals native to the Americas. There are 31 living species: the anteaters, tree sloths, and armadillos. Ex ...

, belonging to the order

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 ar ...

. It lived from the Middle to the Late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

, and its fossilized remains are found in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

Description

This animal was roughly similar with modern armadillos, but with a very different carapace morphology. The size of ''Neoglyptatelus'' was situated between the size of a

greater long-nosed armadillo The greater long-nosed armadillo (''Dasypus kappleri'') is a South American species of armadillo found in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. It is a solitary, nocturnal, terrestrial animal tha ...

and that of a giant armadillo ; the type species, ''Neoglyptatelus originalis'', reached a length of 60 centimeters, excluding the tail, and a weight around 15 kilograms. Its carapace was divided into two separate shields, one scapular and the other pelvic, composed of numerous polygonal osteoderms 1 centimeter thick and 1.5 centimeters long, and fused together to form a rigid structure ; the posterior margin of the scapular shield, which reached about half the total length of the body, consisted of two rows of wedge-shaped, imbricated osteoderms, covering the anterior margin of the pelvic shield. Neoglyptatelus'' was hence equipped with a shield rigid in most of its structure, but flexible in the middle of the back. This is a unique structure for a cingulate, the glyptodonts only having a completely rigid structure formed by fixed osteoderms, and the modern armadillos having several mobile bands in the middle of their backs. The skull of ''Neoglyptatelus'' was long and thin, and devoid of teeth. The caudal armor was also composed of osteoderms placed side by side.

Classification

The genus ''Neoglyptatelus'' was first described in 1997, based on fossil remains found in Miocene terrains of Colombia ; the type species is ''Neoglyptatelus originalis''. Two other species, ''N. sincelejanus'' from the Middle-Late Miocene of Colombia, and ''N. uruguayensis'', from the Late Miocene of

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

, have been attributed to the genus. ''Neoglyptatelus'' is an enigmatic member of the order Cingulata ; at the time of its discovery it was considered a basal member of the subfamily

Glyptodontinae 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-kn ...

, related to archaic forms such as ''

Glyptatelus ''Glyptatelus'' is an extinct genus of glyptodont. It lived from the Late Eocene to the Middle Oligocene in what is now Argentina and Bolivia. Description This genus is only known from very fragmentary remains from its carapace. From a comp ...

'' and surviving in remote areas of northern

in isolation. Subsequent studies indicates that this animal, like its more recent relative ''

Pachyarmatherium ''Pachyarmatherium'' is a genus of extinct large armadillo-like cingulates found in North and South America from the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs, related to the extant armadillos and the extinct pampatheres and glyptodonts. It was presen ...

'', was a member of the clade known as Pachyarmatheriidae, potentially and at least morphologically intermediate between "true" armadillos and glyptodonts.

Paleobiogeography

The peculiar geographical distribution of ''Neoglyptatelus'' and ''Pachyarmatherium'' led researchers to suppose that these animals, originating in South America during the Oligocene or the Early

, migrated to North America during the Great American Faunal Interchange, during the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of ...

s, like the extant

nine-banded armadillo The nine-banded armadillo (''Dasypus novemcinctus''), also known as the nine-banded long-nosed armadillo or common long-nosed armadillo, is a mammal found in North, Central, and South America, making it the most widespread of the armadillos. ...

, which has a quite similar skull.

Bibliography

*Carlini, A. A., Vizcaíno, S. F. & Scillato-Yané, G. J. 1997. Armored Xenarthrans: a unique taxonomic and ecologic assemblage. In Kay, R. F., Madden, R. H., Cifelli, R. L. & Flynn, J. J. (Edits.). Vertebrate Paleontology in the Neotropics. The Miocene Fauna of La Venta, Colombia. Smithsonian Institution Press. Pp. 213–226. * Villarroel A., C. & J. Clavijo. Los mamíferos fósiles y las edades de las sedimentitas continentales del Neógeno de la Costa Caribe Colombiana. Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias. 29 (112): 345-356. 2005. *Fernicola, J. C.; Rinderknecht, A.; Jones, W.; Vizcaíno, S. F.; Porpino, K. (2018). "A New Species of Neoglyptatelus (Mammalia, Xenarthra, Cingulata) from the Late Miocene of Uruguay Provides New Insights on the Evolution of the Dorsal Armor in Cingulates". Ameghiniana. 55 (3): 233–252. doi:10.5710/AMGH.02.12.2017.3150. {{Taxonbar, from=Q6040724 Prehistoric cingulates Prehistoric placental genera Miocene xenarthrans Miocene genus first appearances Miocene mammals of South America Miocene genus extinctions Neogene Colombia Fossils of Colombia Neogene Peru Fossils of Peru Neogene Brazil Fossils of Brazil Neogene Uruguay Fossils of Uruguay Fossil taxa described in 1997