Glyptodon clavipes

Glyptodon is a genus of glyptodont, an extinct group of large, herbivorous armadillos that lived from the Pliocene, around 3.2 million years ago, to the early Holocene, around 11,000 years ago, in South America. It is one of, if not the, best-known genera of glyptodont. Glyptodon has a long and storied past, being the first named extinct cingulate and the type genus of the subfamily Glyptodontinae. Fossils of Glyptodon have been recorded as early as 1814 from Pleistocene aged deposits from Uruguay, though many were incorrectly referred to the ground sloth Megatherium by early paleontologists.

Glyptodon clavipes

Arent derivative work: WolfmanSF ( talk ) · 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
Sits inside
GlyptodonPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Xenarthra
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Xenarthra
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 22 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 33 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 2 of 33 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 33 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 29 of 33 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 23 occurrences23.04 Mya129 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

33 occurrences of Glyptodon clavipes on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

33 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

12 formations

Sopas — 30.43°S, 56.45°WSopas — 32.05°S, 56.12°WSopas — 31.25°S, 57.00°WLujan — 34.60°S, 59.15°WAgua Blanca — 38.48°S, 61.80°WCapadare — 10.86°N, 68.59°WLuján — 35.83°S, 58.02°WTarija — 21.50°S, 64.75°WSanta Vitória — 33.74°S, 53.37°WSan Julian — 47.08°S, 66.10°WLibertad — 34.53°S, 56.18°WDolores — 34.38°S, 57.88°WTucuman — 27.06°S, 64.92°WTafi del Valle — 26.85°S, 65.71°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Glyptodon clavipes has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 19 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Glyptodon clavipes and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Glyptodon clavipes and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

316 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 28 sites for Glyptodon clavipes, 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

25 references

Each of the 33 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. 13 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 Glyptodon clavipes

Credit
Arent derivative work: WolfmanSF ( talk )
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Glyptodon clavipes 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 itGlyptodon through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Owen 1839