page_title: Glyptodont
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Glyptodont / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Doedicurus clavicaudatus and Glyptodon clavipes.
context_page_description: Glyptodontinae is an extinct subfamily of large, heavily armored relatives of armadillos, members of the mostly South American mammalian superorder Xenarthra. They developed in South America around 20 million years ago and spread to southern North America after the continents became connected several million years ago. The best-known genus within the subfamily is Glyptodon.
  In 2016 an analysis of Doedicurus mtDNA found it was, in fact, nested within the modern armadillos as the sister group of a clade consisting of Chlamyphorinae and Tolypeutinae. For this reason, glyptodonts and all armadillos but Dasypus were relocated to a new family, Chlamyphoridae, and glyptodonts were demoted from the former family Glyptodontidae to a subfamily.
context_section_description: Glyptodonts possessed a tortoise-like body armour, made of bony deposits in their skin called osteoderms or scutes. Each species of glyptodont had a unique osteoderm pattern and shell type. With this protection, they were armored like turtles; glyptodonts could not withdraw their heads, but their armoured skin formed a bony cap on the top of their skull. Glyptodont tails had a ring of bones for protection. Doedicurus possessed a large mace-like spiked tail that it would have used to defend itself against predators and, possibly, other Doedicurus. Glyptodonts had the advantage of large size. Many, such as the type genus, Glyptodon, were the size of modern automobiles. The presence of such heavy defenses suggests they were prey of a large, effective predator. At the time that glyptodonts evolved, the apex predators in the island continent of South America were phorusrhacids, a family of giant flightless carnivorous birds.
  In physical appearance, glyptodonts superficially resembled the much earlier dinosaurian ankylosaurs and, to a lesser degree, the recently extinct giant meiolaniid turtles of Australia. These are examples of the convergent evolution of unrelated lineages into similar forms. The largest glyptodonts could weigh up to 2,000 kilograms. Like most of the megafauna in the Americas, they all became extinct at the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago.
caption: Doedicurus and Glyptodon by Robert Bruce Horsfall
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