Megafauna - Bone of Giant Armadillo Found at Brazil

Photo: Francisco Firmino/Irauçuba News

BRAZIL, CEARA state. At a place named São Francisco das Almas, Juá district, at the city of Irauçuba, distant 150 km from Fortaleza, capital of the state of Ceara (northeast of the country), two men, while were digging a pit, they found a enormous bone that belonged to a creature of the megafauna that lived at Brazil there, at least, 15,000 years when these creatures were extinct. 

These giant animals dominated the Earth during Pleistocene, period of the geological history of the planet, in a past that dating back more to 2 million of years ago.

According to the professor of the Department of Palaeontology of the Federal University of Ceara (Departamento de Paleontologia da Universidade Federal do Ceará), Marcio Mendes, the fossil - which was buried to a depth of 4 meters, is of a giant armadillo (in the brazilian portuguese language, the armadillo is called Tatu).

The Megafauna at Brazil reunited several species. One of these was the Pampatherium, the giant armadillo. With the size of a donkey, but much more robust, weighing about 100 to 200 kg, its shell had three ranges. 

3 - Pampatherium  4 - Glyptodon  5 - Panochthus. In comparative illustration, the dimensions of a Pampatherium confronted with the size of its relatives of the Megafauna and a man of medium height.. IMAGE SOURCE: [http://forum.zoologist.ru/viewtopic.php?pid=94820]

Different of the current armadillos, which are insectivorous, ants eaters, the Pampatherium was a herbivorous was not a digger of the soil . It existed there 700,000 years ago and disappeared 10,000 years ago. The Pampatherium belongs to the family of the Dasypodideos (armadillos). The specie found in San Francisco das Almas is called Pampatherium humboldti.

SOURCE: XEREZ, Gloria. Homem cava poço e encontra osso gigante de animal extinto no Ceará.

G1, published in 15/09/2012.

[http://g1.globo.com/ceara/noticia/2012/09/homem-cava-poco-e-encontra-osso-gigante-de-animal-extinto-no-ceara.html]