Glyptotherium

Glyptotherium is an extinct genus of glyptodont, a group of extinct mammals related to the armadillos living from the Middle to Late Pleistocene, approximately 1.8 million to 12,000 years ago (AEO). The genus is considered an example of North American megafauna, of which most have become extinct. Glyptotherium may have been wiped out by changing climate or human interference.
== Description ==
Like its living relative, the armadillo, Glyptotherium had a shell which covered its entire body, similar to a turtle. However, unlike the carapace of a turtle, the Glyptotherium shell was made up of hundreds of small hexagonal scales. Some species grew up to long and its armor may have weighed up to a ton.
== Paleoecology ==
Remains of Glyptotherium species have been found in tropical and subtropical regions of Venezuela, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, and the southern United States; from Florida and South Carolina to Arizona. There is no direct evidence of humans preying on this North American glyptodont. Smilodon may have occasionally preyed upon Glyptotherium, based on a skull from one Glyptotherium fossil recovered from Pleistocene deposits in Arizona bearing the distinctive elliptical puncture marks that best match those of the machairodont cat, indicating that the predator successfully risked biting into bone to kill the armored herbivore, the only option for a predator intent on hunting such heavily armored animals. The Glyptotherium in question was a juvenile, with a still-developing head shield, making it far more vulnerable to the cat's attack. Glyptotherium was named by Osborn in 1903, assigned to Glyptodontinae by Downing and White in 1995 and to Glyptodontidae by Osborn (1903), Brown (1912), Carroll (1988), Cisneros (2005) and Mead et al. (2007).
== Gallery ==
File:Glyptotheriumm.jpg|Restoration
File:Glyptotherium texanum.JPG|Juvenile G. texanum skull, possibly attacked by a Smilodon 
== See also ==
* Glyptodon
* Boreostemma
== References ==
== Further reading ==
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Category:Prehistoric cingulates
Category:Prehistoric placental genera
Category:Pleistocene xenarthrans
Category:Pleistocene genus extinctions
Category:Pleistocene mammals of North America
Category:Blancan
Category:Irvingtonian
Category:Lujanian
Category:Rancholabrean
Category:Pleistocene Costa Rica
Category:Fossils of Costa Rica
Category:Pleistocene El Salvador
Category:Fossils of El Salvador
Category:Pleistocene Mexico
Category:Fossils of Mexico
Category:Pleistocene Panama
Category:Fossils of Panama
Category:Pleistocene United States
Category:Fossils of the United States
Category:Pleistocene mammals of South America
Category:Pleistocene Venezuela
Category:Fossils of Venezuela
Category:Fossil taxa described in 1903