#panochthus

Panochthus tuberculatus was a large glyptodont – a group of giant heavily-armored armadillos – that lived in central and southern South America during the late Pleistocene, about 800,000-12,000 years ago.

Around 3.5m long (~11.5') and 1.5m tall (~5'), it was similar in size to a modern rhino (or a small car), and its large domed "shell" made up of numerous small bony osteoderms made it resemble a mammalian tortoise. Its skull was short and deep, with ever-growing grinding teeth and downwards-flaring cheekbones that anchored powerful jaw muscles. A preserved hyoid apparatus indicates that Panochthus also had a more flexible tongue than some other glyptodonts.

The base of its tail was segmented into rings that allowed it to flex, while the end of the tail was fused into a solid bony tube that was probably studded with large keratinous knobs or spikes.

While these sort of tail weapons in glyptodonts have been proposed as being anti-predator defenses, biomechanical studies suggest they required precise aiming to be most effective and weren't well-suited to fending off fast-moving attackers. Instead they may have been more specialized for fighting each other in ritualized forms of combat – an idea supported by injuries in fossil carapaces that appear to have been caused by blows from opponents' tail clubs.

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Panochthus

Panochthus — рід гігантських викопних броненосців з підродини Glyptodontinae, що мешкали в пліоцені — голоцені (3,6—0,01 млн років тому) на території сучасних Аргентини, Болівії, Бразилії, Парагваю та Уругваю. Найчисленніший, за видовою різноманітністю, рід з Glyptodontinae. Вимерли між 12 і 5 тис. років тому.

Повний текст на сайті "Вимерлий світ":

Glyptodonts and Armadillos in AMNH. The giant one is a Panochthus, a badly photographed skull of Glyptotherium (in second image), the small Propalaehoplophorus and a modern armadillo, the six-banded armadillo (Euphractus sexcinctus).