Armadillo
Channel: 宇宙のすべての知識 プリンシピア
Date: 2019-01-17

Armadillo, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=2186 / CC BY SA 3.0

#Armadillos
#Cingulates
#Rolling animals
#Extant Thanetian first appearances
#Mammal common names
Armadillo

Armadillos are New World placental mammals in the order Cingulata with a leathery armour shell. The Chlamyphoridae and Dasypodidae are the only surviving families in the order, which is part of the superorder Xenarthra, along with the anteaters and sloths. The word "armadillo" means "little armoured one" in Spanish. The Aztecs called them "āyōtōchtli" , Nahuatl for "turtle-rabbit": "āyōtl" (turtle) and "tōchtli" (rabbit). The Portuguese word for "armadillo" is "tatu" which derives from the Tupi language. Similar names are also found in other, especially European, languages.

About nine extant genera and 21 extant species of armadillo have been described, some of which are distinguished by the number of bands on their armour. Their average length is about , including tail. The giant armadillo grows up to and weighs up to , while the pink fairy armadillo is a diminutive species, with an overall length of . All species are native to the Americas, where they inhabit a variety of different environments.

Recent genetic research suggests that an extinct group of giant armoured mammals, the glyptodonts, should be included within the lineage of armadillos, having diverged some 35 million years ago, much more recently than previously assumed.

Like all of the Xenarthra lineages, armadillos originated in South America. Due to the continent's former isolation, they were confined there for most of the Cenozoic. The recent formation of the Isthmus of Panama allowed a few members of the family to migrate northward into southern North America by the early Pleistocene, as part of the Great American Interchange. (Some of their much larger cingulate relatives, the pampatheres and chlamyphorid glyptodonts, made the same journey.)

Today, all extant armadillo species are still present in South Ameri...