Dasypus bellusBeautiful Armadillo
Dasypus bellus looked like today’s modern nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus, or common long-nosed armadillo), except it was much larger. The modern Nine-Banded Armadillo is a cousin, if not a direct descendant of the “Beautiful Armadillo”. Its height was 3.3 feet (1M) and it lived about 2.5 million to 11,000 years ago when it became extinct. 
The body armor was made up of thousands of scutes or dermal plates that can fossilize over time. This armor was a great defense against Pleistocene predators. The round holes found on individual scutes are for hair follicles. Individual scutes are found more often than whole skeletons. Each section of the body has a different type of scute. There were nine flexible bands on the carapace, like their modern cousins. Their snouts were long, round and narrow, along with their skulls. Their jaw had 7-9 peg like teeth. The extinct armadillo is thought to have migrated from South America and into Florida some 2.5 million years ago, in the Pliocene Period. An armadillo can walk across a river bottom or swim across it. Armadillos always have a litter of four pups that are always the same sex. That is because they all develop from the same egg and share the same placenta. Armadillos have strong claws for digging and live in long tunneled burrows. They eat insects, some plants and fruits, and other small vertebrates like lizards and frogs. They are omnivores. Armadillo Fossils for Sale- Click on each picture below to learn more.
Armadillo Scute Dasypus Fossil for Sale
Large Flex Scute Size: 1.28" L x .61" W x .25" Thickness Regular Scute Size: .61" L x .53" W x .19" Thickness Price: SOLD Item #: A013 
Armadillo Scute Dasypus Fossil for Sale
Large Flex Scute Size: 1.34" L x .49" W x .30" Thickness Regular Scute Size: .57" L x .52" W x .21" Thickness Price: SOLD Item #: A012 Basilosaurus Bison Latifrons Camel Llama Fossils Entelodont Eremotherium Sloth Giant Short Faced Bear Jefferson's Ground Sloth Back to Prehistoric Mammals 2 Leave Dasypus bellus / Go to Home Page |
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