Chaetophractus villosus

The big hairy armadillo is one of the largest and most numerous armadillos in South America. It lives from sea level to altitudes of up to 1,300 meters across the southern portion of South America, and can be found in grasslands, forests, and savannahs, and has even started claiming agricultural areas as its home. It is an accomplished digger and spends most of its time below ground. It makes both temporary and long-term burrows, depending on its food source. In Spanish it is colloquially known as peludo.

Chaetophractus villosus

Guérin Nicolas ( messages ) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
big hairy armadilloPBDB
Sits inside
ChaetophractusPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Dasypodidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Dasypodidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 2.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 1 of 18 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 11 of 18 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 6 of 18 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.2–2.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.1–957 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences957 ka–820 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences820 ka–683 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences683 ka–547 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences547 ka–410 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences410 ka–273 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence273 ka–137 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence137 ka–0 Mya — about 12 occurrences2.58 Mya11.7 ka4.1 Mya0 Mya

18 occurrences of Chaetophractus villosus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

18 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

8 formations

Tarija — 21.53°S, 64.73°WLujan — 34.60°S, 59.15°WAgua Blanca — 38.48°S, 61.80°WLuján — 37.00°S, 60.38°WUquía — 23.33°S, 65.33°WLibertad — 34.38°S, 56.18°WChacra La Blanqueada — 38.36°S, 62.15°WSan Andres — 38.12°S, 57.70°W

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The named rock units Chaetophractus villosus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 10 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Chaetophractus villosus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Chaetophractus villosus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

226 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Chaetophractus villosus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

16 references

Each of the 18 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 4 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Chaetophractus villosus

Credit
Guérin Nicolas ( messages )
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Chaetophractus villosus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itChaetophractus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Desmarest 1804