Burmeister girdle gullet

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Burmeister girdle gullet
Burmeister-Gürtelmull after Hermann Burmeister, 1863

Burmeister-Gürtelmull after Hermann Burmeister , 1863

Systematics
Order : Armored siderails (Cingulata)
without rank: Armadillos (Dasypoda)
Family : Chlamyphoridae
Subfamily : Chlamyphorinae
Genre : Calyptophractus
Type : Burmeister girdle gullet
Scientific name of the  genus
Calyptophractus
Fitzinger , 1871
Scientific name of the  species
Calyptophractus retusus
( Burmeister , 1863)

The Burmeister girdle ( Calyptophractus retusus ) is a species of armadillo that occurs in the Gran Chaco in southeastern Bolivia, northern Argentina and western Paraguay, where it inhabits landscapes with soft subsoil. The species lives mainly underground in self-dug burrows and feeds mainly on insects , but there is hardly any information about the exact way of life. The Burmeister girdle mole is hunted in some regions of its range, due to its general rarity and the resulting lack of information, an assessment of the size and stability of the population is currently not possible.

features

Habitus

Burmeister girdle gullet

The Burmeister girdle mole reaches a head-trunk length of 11.6 to 16 cm, plus a tail about 3.5 cm long. The weight varies from 63.5 to 116 g, females are on average slightly smaller than males (73.6 g and 91.3 g). It is thus somewhat larger than the girdle gullet ( Chlamyphorus truncatus ). The head is short and has very small eyes and wide, short, only a maximum of 0.6 cm long, rounded ears. The base of the ears borders directly on the posterior-lateral edge of the head shield. The head shield shows a less good development than the girdle mole and has a more oval shape; it reaches close to the nose, but does not expand in front of the eyes. It is formed from small bone platelets, the size of which increases towards the rear and which have an irregular shape and are somewhat roughened on the front edge. The rear edge of the shield is slightly rounded. The most striking feature of the Burmeister girdle mullet is the back armor, which, unlike the girdle mole, is not directly connected to the head shield, but to the spine and pelvis. It consists of 20 to 23 bands, a few of which are firmly fused together at the front and rear ends of the shell. The rest of the ligaments, on the other hand, are flexible and are separated from one another by narrow skin girdles. The edge of the tank has a wavy course. The individual ligaments are also composed of small bone platelets with a rectangular shape. The size and number of platelets increase from the front to the middle, the first two rows show only 7 such osseous formations, the following twice as many and the fourth to sixth 18 each. The highest number of platelets is found in the center of the armor around 21. Then the number decreases again and the penultimate row consists of 13 bone plates. The back row bends and is perpendicular to the body axis. It forms the anal shield consisting of around 22 bony plates and almost completely covers the back of the body. The anal shield is oval in shape and only leaves a gap for the tail at the bottom. Additional armor can be found on the short tail, which tapers to a point, and on the outside of the legs. A fringe of long, bristly hair protrudes above the anal shield, which protrudes backwards and is brownish in color. Further bristle hairs emerge in pairs from the upper area of ​​the bone platelets of this belt. The armor itself is flesh to yellow in color, as is the short hair that appears from about the middle of the armor. The abdomen, the sides of the body or the inside of the legs, the throat and the cheeks of the head have a thick coat with a light to whitish tint. The short limbs have four toes at the front and five at the back with sharp claws, with the three inner claws of the front feet being the longest at almost 2 cm. The rear foot reaches a maximum length of 3.9 cm.

Skull and dentition features

The greatest length of the skull is 43 mm, the greatest width at the zygomatic arch is 27.8 mm. In the side view, the skull rises steeply from the nasal bone to the occiput , so that it reaches a height of 17.1 mm at the cranium . Here the skull also shows slight curves. The occipital bulge is massive and protrudes well beyond the occipital opening and the articular surfaces for the cervical spine. Conspicuous bone bulges appear in the area of ​​the eyes. As with all armadillos, the zygomatic arch is not closed. The posterior edge of the palatine bone extends beyond the last tooth, the external auditory canal is ossified. As with the other armadillos, the teeth are also small and cone-like. Each half of the jaw is made up of eight teeth at both the top and the bottom, so the dentition consists of 32 teeth in total. With the exception of the first upper and the first two lower, which have a rounded cross-section, all teeth are oval-shaped. The upper row of teeth is 15.2 mm long, the lower 18.4 mm.

Sensory performances and vocalizations

The only known utterances are the screams that the Burmeister girdle uttered when he was frightened or threatened, reminiscent of the crying of a human baby.

distribution

Distribution area

The main distribution area is central South America from central and south-eastern Bolivia through western Paraguay to northernmost Argentina . Here it lives endemically in the Gran Chaco , which is characterized by open landscapes, thorn bush savannahs and dry forests as well as dry climates. It is sometimes assumed that the armadillo species could also occur in the Pantanal , although this is a rather humid region, but so far there is no concrete evidence. The entire distribution area covers 258,000 km², the extent of the actually inhabited area is unknown. The armadillo species is bound to sandy or loose soils and does not occur in areas with a clay or solid subsoil. It can also occur in agricultural areas and then sometimes gets very close to human settlements.

Way of life

General

The way of life of the Burmeister girdle mole has so far been little researched. It is predominantly nocturnal and lives solitary in underground, self-dug passages and caves, which it creates with its strong forelegs, while the excavation is pushed away with its hind legs. It is well adapted to the burrowing way of life with its spindle-shaped body, short ears and small eyes, as well as strong legs and enlarged claws. Through his excavation he occupies an ecological niche comparable to that of the moles in Eurasia . The Burmeister girdle is rarely seen on the surface and then digs in quickly when danger is imminent, whereby it can block the cave entrance with the bent rear area of ​​the back armor. Predators are mainly free-living dogs and cats , but also larger predators and owls . Like most other armadillos, the Burmeister gullet feeds on insects and their larvae , making it an opportunistic insect eater. In addition, other invertebrates such as worms and snails are also eaten, possibly also isolated plants. An individual near Santa Cruz de la Sierra , Bolivia, has been observed eating larvae from seeds of the Acrocomia palm. In search of food, the animal constantly sniffs around the ground and makes small holes. Nothing is known about the breeding of the Burmeister girdle gullet, but it is assumed that only one young is born per litter.

Parasites

Ticks of the genus Amblyomma are known to be the only parasites that infest the Burmeister girdle .

Systematics

Internal systematics of the armadillos according to Gibb et al. 2015
  Dasypoda  
  Dasypodidae  

 Dasypus


  Chlamyphoridae  
  Euphractinae  

 Euphractus


   

 Chaetophractus


   

 Zaedyus




   
  Chlamyphorinae  

 Chlamyphorus


  Calyptophractus  

 Calyptophractus retusus



  Tolypeutinae  

 Priodontes


   

 Tolypeutes


   

 Cabassous







Template: Klade / Maintenance / Style

The Burmeister girdle mole is the only species from the monotypical genus Calyptophractus . Within the group of the armadillos (Dasypoda) it is still placed in the family of the Chlamyphoridae and the subfamily of the Chlamyphorinae , which is the only other recent member of the belt mole rat ( Chlamyphorus truncatus ). Fossil still occurs in the genus Chlamydophractus . The closest relatives of the Chlamyphorinae and their sister group are the Tolypeutinae , which include the giant armadillo ( Priodontes maximus ), the spherical armadillos ( Tolypeutes ) and the bare- tailed armadillos ( Cabassous ). The Euphractinae , within which the six-banded armadillo ( Euphractus sexinctus ), the dwarf armadillo ( Zaedyus pichiy ) and the bristle armadillos ( Chaetophractus ) stand, are to be classified further outside of the relationship . According to molecular genetic studies, the Tolypeutinae and Chlamyphorinae separated in the Oligocene 33 million years ago, the splitting of the belt mole into the two current genera occurred in the Lower Miocene around 19 million years ago. The oldest fossil records of the Burmeister girdle mole come from the Pleistocene .

In the 1930s, C. r. clorindae and C. r. retusus differentiated two subspecies of the Burmeister girdle gullet, the separation of which was mainly based on the proportions of the claws and the shape of the bone plates. However, since too few individuals are known, both the species and the genus are considered monotypical. The first description was in 1863 by Hermann Burmeister as Chlamyphorus retusus , an individual from Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia was available to him as a holotype , which Don Felix San Martin had excavated there alive and which he and his collection in the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia in Buenos Aires . In 1865, John Edward Gray introduced the generic name Burmeisteria due to the numerous differences to the belt gullet , which was used for a long time as the official name of the Burmeister girdle gullet. However, it had already been awarded to a trilobite by an article that appeared five months before Gray's publication and thus preoccupied. As an alternative, some researchers recently used the original name Chlamyphorus retusus , and it was not until 2004 that the IUCN's Anteater, Sloth and Armadillo Specialist Group , then known as the Edentate Specialist Group , officially recognized the generic name Calyptophractus , which is valid today . This was introduced by Leopold Fitzinger in 1871, who also referred to the armadillo in German as "blanket belt animal". The generic name is derived from the Greek words καλυπτός ( kalyptos for "enveloped") and φρακτός ( phraktos for "enclosed" or "protected"). The species name retusus is of Latin origin and means "blunt"; both refer to the back armor. The Burmeister-Gürtelmull is also known locally as "Pichiciego grande". The Guaraní word for the armadillo is Tatu jeikuarajoya , which translates as “armadillo with a short rump” and also refers to the rump or pelvic armor.

Danger

The Burmeister girdle gullet is generally very rare, since it was first described by Burmeister it has only been scientifically registered a little more than two dozen times in Bolivia. In a four-year research campaign among the local Izoceño ethnic group in Bolivia, which began in 1996, only two living individuals were sighted and six others had been killed by hunters. On the one hand, the Burmeister girdle is used as a food resource, and the tank is also eaten, on the other hand, among others, it is considered a bad omen by the Izoceño , which predicts the death of a close relative and is therefore often killed as a defense. Furthermore, its habitat is threatened by the transformation into agricultural landscapes; it is also highly fragmented due to the preference for sandy subsoil, as only part of the Gran Chaco has such soils. The population may have decreased by 10 to 25% since 2000. The IUCN classifies the armadillo in the category of “insufficient data” ( data deficient ) due to the few observations it has made , locally it is also “endangered” ( vulnerable ). The Burmeister girdle mole is found in several nature reserves, including the Defensores del Chaco National Park in Paraguay and the General Pizarro nature reserve in Argentina.

literature

  • Walburga Möller: Today's articulated animals. In: Bernhard Grzimek (Ed.): Grzimek's Encyclopedia of Mammals. Kindler Verlag, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-463-42002-3 , pp. 583-626.
  • Paul Smith, Robert D. Owen: Calyptophractus retusus (Cingulata: Dasypodidae). In: Mammalian Species . 49 (947), 2017, pp. 57-62. doi: 10.1093 / mspecies / sex005
  • Mariella Superina, Agustín Manuel Abba: Chlamyphoridae (Chlamyphorid armadillos). In: Don E. Wilson, Russell A. Mittermeier (eds.): Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 8: Insectivores, Sloths and Colugos. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2018, ISBN 978-84-16728-08-4 , pp. 48-71 (p. 69).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Daniel Barasoain, Rodrigo L. Tomassini, Alfredo E. Zurita, Claudia I. Montalvo and Mariella Superina: A new fairy armadillo (Cingulata, Chlamyphorinae) from the upper Miocene of Argentina: first fossil record of the most enigmatic Xenarthra. In: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 39 (5), 2019, p. E1716778, doi: 10.1080 / 02724634.2019.1716778 ; Daniel Barasoain, Rodrigo L. Tomassini, Alfredo E. Zurita, Claudia I. Montalvo and Mariella Superina: Chlamydophractus, new name for Chlamyphractus Barasoain et al., 2020 (Xenarthra, Chlamyphorinae), non Chlamyphractus Castellanos, 1940 (Xenarthra, Glyptodontidae). In: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. , 2020, p. E1774890, doi: 10.1080 / 02724634.2020.1774890 (name correction ).
  2. ↑ a b c d e Paul Smith: Chaco fairy armadillo Calyptophractus retusus (Burmeister, 1863). In: Mammals of Paraguay. 20, 2008, pp. 1-5.
  3. ↑ a b c Hermann Burmeister: A new Chlamyphorus. In: Treatises of the Natural Research Society in Halle. 7, 1863, pp. 165-171.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Paul Smith, Robert D. Owen: Calyptophractus retusus (Cingulata: Dasypodidae). In: Mammalian Species. 49 (947), 2017, pp. 57-62.
  5. ↑ a b c Mariella Superina, Agustín Manuel Abba: Chlamyphoridae (Chlamyphorid armadillos). In: Don E. Wilson, Russell A. Mittermeier (eds.): Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 8: Insectivores, Sloths and Colugos. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2018, ISBN 978-84-16728-08-4 , pp. 48-71 (p. 67).
  6. ↑ Mariella Superina: Biology and keeping of armadillos (Dasypodidae). University of Zurich, 2000, pp. 1–248.
  7. ↑ a b Edentate Specialist Group: The 2004 Edentata species assessment workshop, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, December 16-17, 2004. In: Edentata. 5, 2004, pp. 3-26.
  8. ↑ a b Agustín. M. Abba, Mariella Superina: Calyptophractus retusus. In: Edentata. 11 (2), 2010, p. 146.
  9. ^ A b Huáscar Azurduy, Franklin Aguanta, Luis Acosta: Nota Sobre los Regístros y Distribución de Chlamyphorus retusus en Bolivia. In: Kempffiana. 1, 2005, pp. 58-62.
  10. ↑ a b c Erika Cuéllar: The Tatujeikurajoyava (Chlamyphorus retusus) in the Izozog Communities of the Bolivian Gran Chaco. In: Edentata. 4, 2001, pp. 14-15.
  11. ↑ a b Gillian C. Gibb, Fabien L. Condamine, Melanie Kuch, Jacob Enk, Nadia Moraes-Barros, Mariella Superina, Hendrik N. Poinar, Frédéric Delsuc: Shotgun Mitogenomics Provides a Reference Framework Phylogenetic and Time Scale for Living Xenarthrans. In: Molecular Biology and Evolution. 33 (3), 2015, pp. 621–642.
  12. ↑ Maren Möller-Krull, Frédéric Delsuc, Gennady Churakov, Claudia Marker, Mariella Superina, Jürgen Brosius, Emmanuel JP Douzery, Jürgen Schmitz: Retroposed Elements and Their Flanking Regions Resolve the Evolutionary History of Xenarthran Mammals (Armadillos, Anteaters and Sloths). In: Molecular Biology and Evolution. 24, 2007, pp. 2573-2582.
  13. ↑ Frédéric Delsuc, Mariella Superina, Marie-Ka Tilak, Emmanuel JP Douzery, Alexandre Hassanin: Molecular phylogenetics unveils the ancient evolutionary origins of the enigmatic fairy armadillos. In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 62, 2012, 673-680
  14. ^ Alfred L. Gardner: Mammals of South America. Volume 1: Marsupials, Xenarthrans, Shrews, and Bats. University of Chicago Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-226-28240-4 , pp. 139-141.
  15. ↑ Leopold Joseph Fitzinger: The natural family of the belt animals (Dasypodes). In: Session reports of the mathematical and natural science class of the Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Department 1. 64, 1871, pp. 209–276 and 329–390.
  16. ↑ Agustín. M. Abba, Mariella Superina: Calyptophractus retusus. In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2. ( [1] ), last accessed on May 1, 2013
  17. ^ Paul Smith: Assessing the assessment, the relevance of the 2006 Paraguayan mammal Red List to the reality of Xenarthra conservation in 2012. In: Edentata. 13, 2012, pp. 18-28.

Web links

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