''Pachyarmatherium'' is a genus of extinct large
armadillo
Armadillos () are New World placental mammals in the order (biology), order Cingulata. They form part of the superorder Xenarthra, along with the anteaters and sloths. 21 extant species of armadillo have been described, some of which are dis ...
-like
cingulates found in
North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography.
Etymology
T ...
and
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
from the
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58[Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...](_blank)
epochs, related to the
extant
Extant or Least-concern species, least concern is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to:
* Extant hereditary titles
* Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English
* Exta ...
armadillos and the
extinct
Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...
pampatheres and
glyptodonts.
It was present from 4.9
Mya to 11,000 years ago, existing for approximately .
Taxonomy
''Pachyarmatherium'' was named by Downing and White (1995). Its type is ''P. leiseyi''.
It was assigned to
Dasypodoidea by Downing and White (1995), and tentatively to
Glyptodontidae by McKenna and Bell (1997). A
cladistic
Cladistics ( ; from Ancient Greek 'branch') is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is ...
analysis performed by de O. Porpino et al. (2009) led to the conclusion that ''Pachyarmatherium'' is a sister group to a
clade
In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...
consisting of Glyptodontidae and
Pampatheriidae.
Oliveira et al. (2013) suggest that ''Pachyarmatherium'' is a possible
dasypodid.
Fossil distribution of ''Pachyarmatherium''
''P. leiseyi''
* Kissimmee River site,
Tamiami Formation
The Tamiami Formation is a Late Miocene to Pliocene geologic formation in the southwest Florida peninsula.
Age
Period (geology), Period: Neogene
Epoch (geology), Epoch: Late Miocene to Pliocene
Faunal stage: Clarendonian through Blancan ~13.06 ...
,
Okeechobee County, Florida
Okeechobee County () is a county located in the Florida Heartland region of the state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,644. The county seat is Okeechobee.
History
Okeechobee County was incorporated in 1917. It was ...
~4.9—1.8 Mya.
*
Haile 16A Site,
Alachua County, Florida
Alachua County ( ) is a county in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 278,468. The county seat is Gainesville, the home of the University of Florida.
History Prehistory and ear ...
~1.8 Mya.—300,000 years ago.
* Payne Creek Mine,
Polk County, Florida
Polk County () is a County (United States), county located in the Central Florida, central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. The county population was 725,046, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, and estimated to be 818,330, as ...
~1.8 Mya—300,000 years ago.
*
Leisey Shell Pit 1A,
Bermont Formation,
Hillsborough County, Florida
Hillsborough County is located in the west-central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. In the 2020 census, the population was 1,459,762, making it the fourth-most populous county in Florida and the most populous county outside the Miami metro ...
~1.8—300,000 years ago.
''P. tenebris''
* Zumbador Cave (= Cueva del Zumbador) -
Capadare Formation, Falcón, Venezuela, Pleistocene
* Cueva El Miedo (= Cave Fear),
Capadare Formation,
Lujanian
The Lujanian age is a South American land mammal age within the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs of the Neogene, from 0.8–0.011 Mya (unit), Ma or 800–11 tya (unit), tya. It follows the Ensenadan.
The age is usually divided into the middle Pleist ...
, Falcón, Venezuela, ~800,000-11,000 BP
''P. brasiliense''
Lajedo de Escada, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, Late Pleistocene, 100,000 years BP
References
Further reading
*
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q56289552, from2=Q7122085
Prehistoric cingulates
Prehistoric placental genera
Pliocene xenarthrans
Pleistocene xenarthrans
Pleistocene extinctions
Pliocene mammals of North America
Pleistocene mammals of North America
Blancan
Pleistocene mammals of South America
Lujanian
Pleistocene Brazil
Fossils of Brazil
Pleistocene Venezuela
Fossils of Venezuela
Fossil taxa described in 1995