Sentences with word «glyptodont»

They used RNA baits designed from computationally reconstructed ancestral DNA sequences based on known modern sequences of glyptodonts» living relatives.

Their findings also highlight the impressive increase in glyptodonts» size over evolutionary time.

Many of the species Darwin discovered in the fossils were previously unknown to science, including several giant ground sloths, compact car — sized relatives of armadillos called glyptodonts (SN Online: 2/22/16) and ancient kin of horses and elephants.

Unlike living armadillos, which can roll into a ball to protect themselves, the largest glyptodonts had fused carapaces and likely depended on their shells and clubbed tails, as well as their immense size, for self - defense.

That's consistent with the fossil record, which shows glyptodonts evolved from medium - sized forms (about 80 kilograms) to become true megafauna in the Pleistocene (reaching 2,000 kilograms) before their disappearance at the end of the last ice age.

Glyptodonts looked like gigantic and fearsome armadillos; one of the largest species, Doedicurus, weighed as much as a ton and had a powerful club - shaped and spiky tail.

Molecular dating suggests that glyptodonts diverged no earlier than about 35 million years ago, the researchers report, in good agreement with their known fossil record.

The molecular evidence reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on February 22 confirms that gigantic armadillos are exactly what glyptodonts were.

«Extinct glyptodonts really were gigantic armadillos, ancient DNA shows.»

Imagine saber - toothed tigers, giant ground sloths, and car - sized glyptodonts — an armadillo relative — ranging across the entire planet.

That's about the size of an average nine - banded armadillo, but nowhere near the largest glyptodonts, which probably tipped the scales at a whopping 2 metric tons, the researchers say.

If you could travel back in time to South America thousands of years ago, you might have caught a glimpse of an animal known as a glyptodont living alongside giant ground sloths and saber - toothed cats.

Their phylogenetic analysis establishes that glyptodonts are in fact deeply nested within the armadillo crown group, representing a distinct subfamily (Glyptodontinae) within the family known as the Chlamyphoridae, represented today by the dwarf pink fairy armadillo and the giant armadillo, for instance.

The researchers estimate that the last common ancestor of glyptodonts and their living armadillo relatives weighed in at a mere 6 kilograms, suggesting a «spectacular increase in glyptodont body mass.»

«Glyptodonts should probably be considered a subfamily of gigantic armadillos,» adds Frédéric Delsuc of CNRS in France.

«Glyptodonts in fact represent an extinct lineage that likely originated about 35 million years ago within the armadillo radiation,» says Hendrik Poinar of McMaster University in Canada.

Glyptodonts, extinct shelled mammals, were long suspected to be cousins to modern - day armadillos.

The team's analysis suggests that glyptodonts first evolved about 35 million years ago, when the last common ancestor of all glyptodonts and many of today's armadillos — a species whose fossils are yet to be discovered — weighed in at about 6 kilograms.