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Armadillos
The Armadillo is a very different creature. It has tremendous claws,
but no fighting instinct. They have teeth, but not in front, except for
the milk teeth some have during infancy. They have long tongues because
they catch insects. A strange thing which these animals have is a coat
armor, unique among other animals. They have bony plate armor on the
outside of their bodies'. Each species has a different pattern for every
little plate they carry. They all are great burrowers. They sink a hole
with them in it as one approaches. It takes a good man to haul even a
little one back if it is halfway down it's retreat under the ground.
They are active, running with a tiptoe trot. Their trot is as an aged
pony that is tired. They have a varied diet. They hunt by night.
Today's Armadillos are not the biggest armadillos that have ever
existed. The soil of South America is full of larger Armadillo bones from
the past. Some of the past bones were as much as sixteen feet long
including the tail. Some even migrated to Texas.
There are several species of these animals. The Six-banded Armadillos
were good burrowers and massive devourers of insects. They also ate
vegetable matter and were useful for devouring carrion. One specie called
the Peludo was clumsy bet was effective in getting a snake to its armored
hide and grinding the life out of it. It then eats the snake not effected
by the poison. The king of the tribe is the Great Armadillo. It is a big
creature in appearance, a yard in length from nose to tail covered with the
armor. It even has armor on its legs. Its claws are very long and awfully
strong. The Three- banded Armadillos had a further protection. They are
able to curl up like a hedgehog and present an impenetrable ball to an
enemy. It is similar than that of a hedgehog or the porcupine, but it is
more interesting because of the way they fit themselves into their armor.
Their head and tail pass perfectly through openings in the upper surface of
the armor. These openings are bony doors.
The back of a typical Glyptodon was covered with a solid piece of bony
armor. The tail looked like a bunch of bony rings. The backbone was solid
except at the neck. At the neck, there is a joint which allows the head to
fit under the bony plate. Some members of the family had tails of solid
bone.
Bibliography 1. Prodigy - Grolier Electronic
Publishing, 1990, A-section 2. The Book of Knowledge - Grolier Publishing,
1933-1935, A-Section
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