In Argentina, an ancient armadillo the size of a car was found.
A lot of fossils have been found in Argentina’s huge lands in recent years, making the country a treasure trove for palaeontologists. A farmer found the shells of four old armadillos, called Glyptodonts, that are the size of cars. This discovery made news around the world.
These four shells are one of the most amazing fossil finds of the last few years. The biggest one is about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. The find was made in a dry stream near Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Institute of Archaeological and Palaeontological Investigations of the Pampa Quaternary has been looking into it.
Juan de Dios Sota saw the shells while he was out letting his cows graze. He noticed the shapes of the shells. When scientists got to the spot, they were shocked to find the shells of four Glyptodont animals, two adults and two adults and two young animals.
Before armadillos, there were animals called glyptodonts. These animals mostly lived in North and South America during the Pleistocene era.
Glyptodonts evolved about 20 million years ago and lived all over Latin America. They looked like huge armadillos. They had a big, tough shell that defended them from many threats, just like their descendants did. Different from their offspring, they could grow up to 10 feet long, which is about the size of a car.
Even though they were as big as cars, they were gentle giants that only ate plants. It’s thought that they died out at the start of the last ice age, which is sad. Their shells were made of bone and could weigh up to 500 kg, or 1,100 pounds. That’s about 20% of their body weight.
Another farmer in Argentina found a different fossilised shell in 2015 (see picture).The three-foot-long shell that was found on a stream near a farm may have come from a glyptodont, which is a type of giant armadillo that lived in the past.
Shells that are almost completely whole are very hard to find among these fossils. It is very rare and important that four Glyptodont shells were found in the same place. Scientists from the Institute will now dig through the shells for a week to learn as much as they can about the animals.
There will be tests to find out how old they are, what gender they were, and how they may have died. They are thought to be about 20,000 years old at this point.
The amazing animals that lived millions of years ago are no longer with us, but their fossils give us a look into the past and help us learn more about the animals that lived back then. These Glyptodont shells are just one of many interesting discoveries that will keep science and the public interested.
