#pampathere

[sina-man]

Holmesina

[ailurinae]

Modern armadillos are cool, but it's a real shame we don't have Glyptodonts anymore. And Pampatheres for that matter.

Something I respect about dinosaurs is that they're very direct. Want to eat leaves off trees? Just grow a really long neck I guess. Wanna go fast? Get good legs. Wanna beat the shit out of something? Hard skull. Wanna just eat everything? You've come to the right place Mr T-Rex here's a huge fucking mouth

[synapsid-taxonomy]

Did the ancestral xenarthran have osteoderms?

Probably not. Osteoderms are only present in cingulates (armadillos, glyptodonts, pampatheres), and a few ground sloth genera (five mylodonts and maybe two megatheriids). They are not present in anteaters or the majority of ground sloth genera - and in fact, they only show up late in ground sloth evolution. What’s more, the osteoderms of cingulates are much more complex and extensive than those of ground sloths. This led McDonald (2018) to conclude that osteoderms probably evolved multiple times: once in cingulates, and at least once in ground sloths.

[scientificillustration]

Amazing illustrations of the giant armadillo Holmesina floridanus by Julia Morgan Scott from the open access paper:  Cranial osteology of the pampathere Holmesina floridanus (Xenarthra: Cingulata; Blancan NALMA), including a description of an isolated petrosal bone

[paleololigo]

Understanding Variation in Body Shape and Size in Extinct and Unusual Mammals - #365papers - 4

Understanding Variation in Body Shape and Size in Extinct and Unusual Mammals – #365papers – 4

Gaudin and Lyon, 2017, Cranial osteology of the pampathere Holmesina floridanus (Xenarthra: Cingulata; Blanca NALMA), including a description of an isolated petrosal bone: PeerJ 5:e4022; DOI 10.7717/peerj.4022 What’s it about? This paper is a detailed description of several fossil skulls of the Holmesina floridanus, a pampathere that once lived in Florida. These skulls are then compared with…