Zaedyus pichiy

The pichi, dwarf armadillo or pygmy armadillo is an armadillo native to Argentina and Chile. It is the only living member of the genus Zaedyus, and the only armadillo to hibernate. Fossil remains from the Cerro Azul Formation indicate this species had already evolved during the late Miocene epoch.

Zaedyus pichiy

Daderot · CC0 · 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
pichiPBDB
Sits inside
ZaedyusPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Dasypodidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Dasypodidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Mass
977 gWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 4.9 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 8 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 4 of 18 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 18 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 6 of 18 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 7 of 18 occurrences8.2–7.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.9–7.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.7–7.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.4–7.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.1–6.8 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences6.8–6.5 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences6.5–6.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences6.2–6.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences6.0–5.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences5.7–5.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences5.4–5.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences5.1–4.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.8–2.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.0–1.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.7–1.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.4–1.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.1–850 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences850 ka–567 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences567 ka–283 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence283 ka–0 Mya — about 10 occurrences5 Mya11.7 ka8.5 Mya0 Mya

18 occurrences of Zaedyus pichiy on record. 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

4 formations

Cerro Azul — 37.73°S, 63.53°WCerro Azul — 36.08°S, 65.00°WCerro Azul — 37.02°S, 64.51°WCerro Azul — 37.37°S, 65.47°WCerro Azul — 36.25°S, 65.51°WNuapua — 20.75°S, 63.07°WNuapua — 20.87°S, 63.07°WLuján — 37.00°S, 60.38°WLa Invernada — 33.24°S, 62.42°W

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The named rock units Zaedyus pichiy has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

221 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Zaedyus pichiy, 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

13 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. 1 further reference is 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 Zaedyus pichiy

Credit
Daderot
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Zaedyus pichiy 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 itZaedyus through timeThe world it lived on

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