Bare-tailed armadillos

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Bare-tailed armadillos
Small bare-tailed armadillo (Cabassous chacoensis)

Small bare- tailed armadillo ( Cabassous chacoensis )

Systematics
Superordinate : Sub-articulated animals (Xenarthra)
Order : Armored siderails (Cingulata)
without rank: Armadillos (Dasypoda)
Family : Chlamyphoridae
Subfamily : Tolypeutinae
Genre : Bare-tailed armadillos
Scientific name
Cabassous
McMurtrie , 1831

The cabassous ( Cabassous ) are a mammalian species selected from the group of the armadillo (Dasypoda). Its name comes from its tail, which is unarmored compared to the other armadillo species. The genus is divided into four species, all of which are highly specialized insectivores and mostly feed on ants and termites . Their habitat includes different biotopes from open grasslands to forests. The way of life has otherwise been little explored.

description

Bare-tailed armadillos are medium-sized armadillos that reach a head-torso length of 30 to 49 cm and a tail length of 9 to 20 cm. Their weight can vary between 2 and 6.5 kg. The stocky head has a short, wide snout. The ears are set wide apart and are funnel-shaped. The typical head shield is rather narrow and oval in shape and consists of individual small bone plates. In contrast to those of other mammals , the dentition has characteristic tooth formations without tooth enamel , the teeth are equipped with only one root. There are 7 to 10 such teeth per jaw half in the upper jaw and 8 to 9 in the lower jaw, so a total of 30 to 38, but the number of teeth is often highly variable within the individual types. The back armor has an egg-shaped shape and is shaped like a dome. It also consists of individual bone platelets in a ligament-like arrangement, of which the middle 11 to 14 ligaments are particularly flexible, but the areas above the shoulder and pelvis are more rigid. Usually it is dark brown to black in color and has a lighter edge. The underside of the body is yellowish-white in color. In contrast to other armadillo species, the long, slender tail does not have armored rings, but sometimes only thin, widely spaced scales. All limbs end in five toes that have claws. The claws of the middle toes of the forefoot toes are particularly long and curved like a sickle.

distribution

The range of the bare-tailed armadillos stretches from southern Mexico in Central America over large areas of South America east of the Andes . The southernmost distribution limit is in northern Argentina . They inhabit grasslands and wooded, drier areas with well loosened soil in high and lowlands. They are often found near rivers, but they can also be found in more swampy areas. Besides the nine-banded armadillo ( Dasypus novemcinctus ) , the Central American bare-tailed armadillo is the only armadillo species that is not restricted to South America.

Way of life

Territorial behavior

The bare-tailed armadillos are predominantly loners and use action spaces in which they build their burrows, which are often located on embankments. They are largely nocturnal animals, during the day they retreat into burrows that they dig with their powerful claws, at night they go in search of food. When moving, the forefeet touches the tip of the claws, the hindfeet touches the entire sole, and the animals can swim well. In the event of a threat, they can run quickly over short distances and try to withdraw into their den.

nutrition

The diet of the bare-tailed armadillos consists almost exclusively of insects, mainly termites and ants . They dig into their burrows with their powerful claws and lick their prey with their long tongues. Their well-developed sense of smell helps them find food. This complete specialization in the mentioned food resource means that other invertebrates such as spiders are rarely found in their digestive residues. The food is only partially chewed, as indigestible chitin residues on the feces show. Parts of the soil are also sometimes swallowed in order to balance the mineral balance.

Reproduction

Almost nothing is known about the reproduction of these animals. All that is known is that on average only one young is born per litter, which weighs 100 to 115 g.

Systematics

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

 Dasypus


  Chlamyphoridae  
  Euphractinae  

 Euphractus


   

 Chaetophractus


   

 Zaedyus




   
  Chlamyphorinae  

 Chlamyphorus


   

 Calyptophractus



  Tolypeutinae  

 Priodontes


   

 Tolypeutes


  Cabassous  

 Cabassous tatouay


   

 Cabassous chacoensis


   

 Cabassous centralis


   

 Cabassous unicinctus










Template: Klade / Maintenance / Style

The bare- tailed armadillos ( Cabassous ) are a genus from the group of the armadillos (Dasypoda) and the order of the armored articulated animals (Cingulata). Within the armadillos they are in the family of the Chlamyphoridae and in the subfamily of the Tolypeutinae , the latter forming them together with their closest relatives, the spherical armadillos ( Tolypeutes ) and the giant armadillos ( Priodontes ). The next related group are the Chlamyphorinae , which include the girdle gullet ( Chlamyphorus truncatus ) and the Burmeister girdle gullet ( Calyptophractus retusus ), further outside are the Euphractinae with, among others, the six-banded armadillo ( Euphractus sexcinctus ). Molecular genetic studies have shown that the Chlamyphorinae and Tolypeutinae separated in the Oligocene 33 million years ago, the Tolypeutini diversified in the Lower Miocene over 20 million years ago, whereby Priodontes may have split off first and a short time later emerged from its sister line Cabassous and Tolypeutes . Within the subfamily, Cabassous and Priodontes are viewed as being much more closely related from an anatomical point of view; both form the tribe of the Priodontini . The bare-tailed armadillos are outwardly very similar to the giant armadillo and differ from it largely in their smaller size and the lack of tail armor. Tolypeutes, however, belongs to the Tolypeutini tribe . The subfamily also includes some extinct genera, such as the Kuntinaru from the Oligocene .

Today four types are recognized:

The genus name Cabassous was introduced in 1831 by Henry McMurtrie , who viewed the genus as monotypical and only referred to the southern bare-tailed armadillo , and he also believed it was a subgenus of Dasypus . A name given by Johann Georg Wagler in 1830 , Xenurus , is invalid because it was preoccupied by a species of birds . The first evidence in Europe of the existence of bare-tailed armadillos came in 1614 when the Capuchin P. d'Abbeville reported on the southern bare-tailed armadillo. In the 19th century, the German trivial name "Kabassu" or "Nacktschwänziges Kabassu" was sometimes in use. Cabassous is the Latinized version of the word capacou , which comes from the language of the Caribs in today's French Guiana and means "armadillo", the original name is kapasi . The derived term cabasú is the most frequently used form for the bare-tailed armadillo in Spanish- speaking Latin America today .

Tribal history

Although the line of the bare-tailed armadillos began in the Lower Miocene over 20 million years ago, there is almost no fossil record. Only a few finds from Brazil can be assigned to the southern bare-tailed armadillo and come from the Middle to Upper Pleistocene . Bone platelets of the fixed and movable armor area from the Gruta do Urso Fóssil in the Brazilian state of Ceará belong to the early Holocene , but an exact species assignment is not possible.

threat

In South America in particular, bare-tailed armadillos are hunted for their meat, but not in Central America because of popular belief . Furthermore, there is a large decline in the inhabited area due to agriculture in some species . Nonetheless, bare-tailed armadillos are still relatively common, only the small bare-tailed armadillo is classified as slightly endangered by the IUCN , the populations of the other three species are not yet threatened.

literature

  • Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World . Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
  • 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. 148-153.

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e Mariella Superina: Biology and keeping of armadillos (Dasypodidae). University of Zurich, 2000, pp. 1–248.
  2. a b c d e Paul Smith: The Xenarthra famalies Myrmecophagidae and Dasypodidae. Fauna Paraguay Handbook of the Mammals of Paraguay, 2012, pp. 1-35.
  3. ^ A b Agustín Manuel Abba, Mariella Superina: The The 2009/2010 Armadillo Red List Assessment. In: Edentata. 11 (2), 2010, pp. 96-114.
  4. a b c 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 Phylogenetic Framework and Timescale for Living Xenarthrans. In: Molecular Biology and Evolution. 33 (3), 2015, pp. 621–642.
  5. 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.
  6. 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, pp. 673-680.
  7. Frédéric Delsuc, Sergio F Vizcaíno, Emmanuel JP Douzery: Influence of Tertiary paleoenvironmental changes on the diversification of South American mammals: a relaxed molecular clock study within xenarthrans. In: BMC Evolutionary Biology. 4 (11), 2004, pp. 1-13.
  8. Guillaume Billet, Lionel Hautier, Christian de Muizon, Xavier Valentin: Oldest cingulate skulls provide congruence between morphological and molecular scenarios of armadillo evolution. In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 278, 2011, pp. 2791-2797.
  9. Don E. Wilson and DeeAnn M. Reeder: Mammal Species of the World. A taxonomic and geographic Reference. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005 ( [1] ).
  10. a b Mariella Superina, John M. Aguiar: A Reference List of common names for the edentates. In: Edentata. 7, 2006, pp. 33-44.
  11. ^ 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. 146-148.
  12. Leopold Joseph Fitzinger: The natural family of the armadillos (Dasypodes). In: Session reports of the methematic-natural science class of the Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Department 1. 64, 1871, pp. 209–276 and 329–390
  13. Virginia Hayssen: Cabassous tatouay (Cingulata: Dasypodidae). In: Mammalian Species. 46 (909), 2014, pp. 28-32.
  14. Jump up Rafael Gustavo Rigolon: Revisão etimológica do gênero Cabassous (Cingulata, Chlamyphoridae): os equívocos que os dicionários perpetuam. In: Edentata. 18, 2017, pp. 1–11.
  15. Paulo V. Oliveira, Ana Maria Ribeiro, Édison V. Oliveira, Maria Somália S. Viana: The Dasypodidae (Mammalia, Xenarthra) from the Urso Fóssil Cave (Quaternary), Parque Nacional de Ubajara, State of Ceará, Brazil: paleoecological and taxonomic aspects. In: Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências. 86 (1), 2014, pp. 147–158.

Web links

Commons : Naked- tailed armadillos ( Cabassous )  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files