Doedicurus
| Doedicurus | ||||||||||||
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Skeleton reconstruction of Doedicurus clavacaudictus |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Pleistocene | ||||||||||||
| ? Million years to about 11,000 years | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Doedicurus | ||||||||||||
| Burmeister , 1874 | ||||||||||||
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Doedicurus is an extinct genus of mammals and belongs to the Glyptodontidae family. The genus Doedicurus produced the largest known glyptodontids with a maximum length of approx. 3.6 m and not only wore protective armor, but also a bony club at the tail end (similar to Ankylosaurus ). The tail consisted of the strongly consolidated, club-shaped end piece and 6 movable rings. Scars on the end piece indicate that it was armed with spikes. It is also possible that there were horny bladders, as they are known from Panochthus (another genus of the Glyptodontidae), which also had a tail lobe. The teeth and the back armor are also very reminiscent of Panochthus and the former are clearly different from those of the Glyptodon . Doedicurus lived in the Pleistocene of South America and only died out around 11,000 years ago. It was still a contemporary of the first South American indigenous people. Like the rest of the glyptodontid species, it probably fed on grass.
literature
- Douglas Palmer: Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Animals. An illustrated encyclopedia. Könemann, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-8290-6113-7 .
- Arno Hermann Müller : Textbook of paleozoology. Volume 3: Vertebrates. Part 3: Mammalia. 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena 1989, ISBN 3-334-00223-3 .
