Armadillo
The Armadillo is any of several small American mammals with bony plates in
their upper body skin. They usually eat insects, earthworms, spiders, and land
snails.
The Armadillo is a very unusual creature. It has tremendous claws, but no fighting
instinct. It has teeth, but not in the front of the jaw, except for the milk
teeth that some have during infancy. It has a long tongue for catching insects.
Another unique phenomena is their coat of armor which is a bony plate on the
outside of their body. 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.
The armadillo's shell is its best protection. The shell is made up of many
small plates of bony armor fitted closely together. It is hard and stiff, but
is joined across the animal's back. This jointing allows one genus to curl itself
up into a hard tight ball with the shell on the outside and its head and feet
tucked in out of harm's way. Few animals are then able to get a grip on the
armadillo with their teeth or claws. But the armadillo hides in its shell only
as a last resort It usually hurries into its burrow at the first sign of danger.
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
but it was effective in getting a snake to its armored hide and grinding the
life out of it. It then eats the snake, and is not affected 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:
Prodigy - Grolier Electronic Publishing, 1990, A-section
The Book of Knowledge - Grolier Publishing, 1933-1935, A-Section
