Armadillo images8/5/2023 ![]() These warthogs could become a problem without hunter intervention. They are typically not aggressive (unlike feral pigs), and can weigh more than 200 pounds.Įvidence indicates that since 2015, the feral population of African warthogs has been growing and is self-sustaining, the first such population in North America, according to the Houston Chronicle. Warthogs are wild members of the pig family, native to Africa, and classified as a non-game or exotic species. Scientists believe that the last glyptodons died out shortly after the last Ice Age because of overhunting by humans as well as climate change.One major concern about the new invasive species: like their cousin the feral pig, warthogs can ruin natural habitats in the state. Most warthogs are limited to La Salle, Dimmit, and McMullen counties in Texas, however in 2015 one was reported in Duval County. Ultimately, however, hunting is what likely led to the glyptodon’s downfall. Imagine our ancestors huddling under a giant armadillo shell during intense tropical rainstorms or fierce blizzards. Yes, these creatures were so large that the shells of the dead could serve as makeshift shelters for early humans. And not just the meat - fossil evidence found in South America has led some paleontologists to conclude that early humans used the empty shells as shelters from rain, snow, and inclement weather. That is, if they avoided the spiked tail and if they prevented the creature from curling into the world’s largest medicine ball.īut if humans could succeed in making a kill, the meat of such a large creature would have been a valuable resource. If a hunting group could turn a glyptodon over onto its back, they could throw sharp spears at the animal’s underside to kill it. Though no match for the glyptodon’s strength and size, humans were able to outsmart these animals and sometimes hunt them.Īlthough their backs and tails were strong and sturdy, their underbellies were soft. Wikimedia Commons A depiction of prehistoric humans hunting a giant glyptodon. Humans and other animals weren’t quick to mess with these creatures - at least not without a plan. In short, similar problems - like being a large, slow-moving grazer with the need to defend itself during interspecies combat - resulted in similar evolutionary solutions.Īnd what formidable solutions they were. What’s actually at work here is convergent evolution, a mechanism by which unrelated species evolve similar structures because they’re useful in a particular environment. ![]() The similarities aren’t a coincidence, but neither do they point to any link between these giant mammals and the famous Ornithischian dinosaur. The picture that begins to emerge will sound familiar to dinosaur fans, who will recognize many of the distinctive features of ankylosaur: a big lumbering body, a bony mantle, and a deadly club tail. In fact, their tails were so strong that they could shatter the bony back plates of other glyptodons. If you got too close to a glyptodon protecting its young, a quick whip of the tail could crush your skull instantly. Its tail had a bony club on it, sometimes with spikes, that the creature could wield with deadly results. Its size and hard backplates weren’t the only features that made this creature stand out. Wikimedia Commons A spiky glyptodon tail. It took English biologist Richard Owen to point out what was happening, and since he resolved the confusion, it was his name that stuck: glyptodon, meaning “grooved tooth.” When Glyptodon Walked The Earth The discovery of more large bone fragments in the area led experts to hypothesize that they belonged to an enormous ground sloth, but when a strange collection of bony plates turned up, a new theory was put forward: at some point in history, a giant armadillo had walked the earth.Įveryone had a different idea about what the new discovery should be called - and with all the different names being batted around in the scientific literature, many didn’t realize they were all talking about the same creature. Glyptodon reappeared on the scene in 1823, when an Uruguayan naturalist was shocked to unearth what turned out to be an eight-inch-thick, seven-pound femur unlike anything he had seen before. Wikimedia Commons Richard Owen’s 1839 sketch of a glyptodon skeleton and the grooved teeth (right) that gave it its name.
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