Tourists Find 120,000yo Prehistoric Armadillo At Beach

This is the moment a team of palaeontologists clear the soil around the shell of a 120,000-year-old prehistoric armadillo after a little girl found it while out walking with her family on holiday.

The prehistoric remains were found at Redonda Beach in the coastal city of Mar del Plata in the eastern Argentine province of Buenos Aires.

According to local media, the fossil was found by a little girl called Cielo who was strolling around the area with her family while staying in Mar del Plata on holiday.

Video Credit: CEN/@museoscaglia

Reports said the intelligent little girl was able to recognise the fossil because she had seen similar prehistoric remains in a museum.

According to the Lorenzo Scaglia of the Museum of Natural Science, the prehistoric remains belong to the fossilised bony shell of a glyptodont known as a neosclerocalyptus which date back to between 120,000 and 30,000 years ago.

The footage shows several palaeontologists from the Lorenzo Scaglia Museum digging up the fossils.

One scientist is heard saying: “We are digging up the shell of glyptodont and it is a very big piece.”

Credit: CEN/@museoscaglia
The finding of a glyptodont

Reports said the team of palaeontologists took the shell to the museum’s facilities where it will be examined and studied.

Local media said that the finding will allow scientists to learn more about the species, which are believed to have been excellent diggers and possibly responsible for a series of deep caves in the area.

Last month, the three-million-year-old fossilised tail of another species of glyptodont known as plohophorus was found at a nearby beach called Playa Paradise in the same city of Mar del Plata.

The Lorenzo Scaglia Museum wrote on social media: “We are really proud of the team of palaeontologists of the Scaglia Museum who recently found a glyptodont which is more than 3 million years old. We have everything.”

Video Credit: CEN/@museoscaglia (Archive)

Glyptodonts were a genus of large heavily armoured mammals with a rounded, bony shell and squat limbs similar to a turtle.

They developed in South America around 20 million years ago and they all are believed to have become extinct at the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago.

They reportedly weighed around 1,000 kilogrammes (2,205 lbs) and grew to the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.

To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below.
Story By: Jonathan MaciasSub-EditorJoseph Golder, Agency: Central European News


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