#peltephilus

Prehistoric Kingdom | Update 16 - Vivarium Animals

Archaeopteryx lithographica

Microraptor gui

Compsognathus longipes

Diictodon feliceps

Diplocaulus magnicornis

Mononykus olecranus

Peltephilus ferox

Sahonachelys mailakavava

Simosuchus clarki

Titanoboa cerrejonensis

Tiktaalik roseae

Patagosmilus goini and Peltephilus, Velizar Simeonovski

There is a thin fissure on the neck of Peltephilus, as soft as a catfish's belly, where the armor does not meet. Patagosmilus knows this, and if she can slip one of her fangs into that slot, she can break the armadillo's spine and end its struggling. She's done it before—learned it from her mother a lifetime ago—so when she pounces, she has every confidence that she will feed before morning.

But the armadillo does not want to give his life. He tosses and wheels, challenging her claws to find purchase on his back. She slips, snarls, clings, pokes her fangs against the scutes, tries to find the window to rush through with her teeth. Peltephilus is a survivor, knows her trick, won't let her in.

Peltephilus ferox, an armadillo from the Early Miocene of Argentina (~17-16 mya) that was similar in size to a large dog, probably around 1.5m long (5'). It had less solid armor than its modern relatives, with its bony osteoderms being arranged more like chain mail, loosely connected to each other and slightly overlapping, creating a much more flexible body covering.

Its most unusual features were the horns on its snout, convergently resembling the later horned gophers of North America. But unlike other mammals Peltephilus' horns were actually modified plates of its face armor, enlarged pointed osteoderms that were only connected to its skull by soft tissue membranes -- meaning that after death they tended to fall off, and the exact number and position of them is still a little uncertain.