Glyptotherium

Glyptotherium is a genus of glyptodont in the family Chlamyphoridae that lived from the Early Pliocene, about 3.9 million years ago, to the Late Pleistocene, around 15,000 years ago. It was widely distributed, living in the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, and Brazil. Fossils that had been found in the Pliocene Blancan Beds in Llano Estacado, Texas were named Glyptotherium texanum by American paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1903. Another species, G. cylindricum, was named in 1912 by fossil hunter Barnum Brown on the basis of a partial skeleton that had been unearthed from the Pleistocene deposits in Jalisco, Mexico. The two species differ in several aspects, including age: G. texanum is from the older Early Pliocene to Early Pleistocene strata, whereas G. cylindricum is exclusive to the Late Pleistocene.

Glyptotherium

Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
GlyptodontinaePBDB
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 1.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.8 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 114 occurrencesPliocene — about 16 of 114 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 98 of 114 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 114 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.5–4.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.3–4.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.1–3.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.9–3.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.7–3.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.5–3.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.3–3.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.1–2.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.9–2.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.7–2.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.2–972 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences972 ka–778 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 5 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 51 occurrences1.8 Mya129 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

114 occurrences of Glyptotherium 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

114 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

14 formations

St. David — 32.00°N, 110.20°WTamiami — 27.30°N, 81.30°WTamiami — 27.30°N, 80.80°WTamiami — 27.78°N, 82.68°WCamp Rice — 31.50°N, 105.20°WCamp Rice — 32.65°N, 107.23°WRancho Viejo Beds — 21.03°N, 100.75°WRancho Viejo Beds — 21.10°N, 100.80°WGila Conglomerate — 32.58°N, 109.48°WGila Conglomerate — 32.70°N, 109.00°WBlanco — 33.82°N, 101.20°WBlanco — 33.70°N, 101.10°WLove — 31.50°N, 105.20°WSierra Ladrones — 35.70°N, 107.00°WSierra Ladrones — 35.10°N, 106.80°WSeymour — 33.80°N, 99.70°WSeymour — 33.75°N, 99.50°WTacubaya — 21.80°N, 102.30°WCaloosahatchee — 27.04°N, 81.82°WTule — 34.50°N, 101.30°WSilver Bluff — 32.56°N, 80.29°WChapala — 20.30°N, 103.20°W

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The named rock units Glyptotherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 86 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Glyptotherium and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Glyptotherium and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

657 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 107 sites for Glyptotherium, 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

77 references

Each of the 114 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. 65 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 Glyptotherium

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Glyptotherium 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 itGlyptodontinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Osborn 1903