The oval toothed beast is a head covered with scales, 7-8 always growing arched teeth on each side of the upper and lower jaws, because these molars have a deep groove, as if carved out, it is also named the caricature, its body length of 3 to 3.3 meters. Its body is covered by a complete arched carapace, which can reach 2-2.7 meters in diameter, the tail is short and thick, dragged behind it, and it is also wrapped in multi-layered sleeve-like scales, its carapace is very heavy, accounting for about 20% of the body weight, its carapace is not formed of bones, but on the keratinized hard skin on the surface of the body is inlaid with countless hexagonal bone scales of different sizes, forming a hard shell of 3-5 cm thick, and there is a layer underneath for protection, its limbs are thick and strong, with claws on the forefoot that can dig soil, and the hind feet are similar to hooves.
The griffin mainly lives in the vast tropical rainforest areas of South America, such as Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil, subtropical regions, and there are also a few fossils found in the south of the United States and Mexico and other places, its habitat is more diverse, but mainly lives in the open grassland area, the glyptodont because of its relatively large size, like to walk slowly on the ground, not good at running fast, but its shell and bone have no relationship, so it will not affect its flexibility of action, in addition to the use of carapace to protect the body, The end of its tail is swollen, with many spikes, and it seems to be a self-defense weapon against predators, although some people think that this structure is a tool for courtship struggle between males, and some species have more than one meter and can freely swing the tubular tail.
Taxa characteristics
There are also many species of glyptodonts, they are all belonging to the order Poor tooth, carniodon family, they are closely related to modern armadillos, armadillos are special animals in the tropical region of the Western Hemisphere, a total of 9 genera and 21 species, armadillos are the most diverse and widely distributed of the existing poor toothed animals, from the south of the United States to the southern tip of South America can see this kind of scaly, head and tail like a mouse animal, the size of the body is not consistent between the various, the largest body length of 100 cm, the smallest less than 10 cm, in them, in them, The number of tail tripping also varies with species, at least three tripping, up to eighteen tripping, common is three tripping armadillos, six tripping armadillos, etc., large armadillos and small armadillos are relatively rare, most of them inhabit sparse forests, grassland deserts and other areas, most of them burrowing, nocturnal activities, there are also a few daytime activities, because the posture and shape are like armored rats, so it is also known as "armored rats". Although the glyptodont has perished, there are many offspring creatures related to it, so let's take stock of two.
Woolly armadillo
The body of the woolly armadillo is mainly gray-brown, with scales on the top of the head, a pair of rounded small ears on both sides, a pointed and long mouth, and a layer of small bone pieces on the outside of the body, arranged like a tile, bone scales, 8 scales that can be freely stretched, there are sparse and rough short hairs between the scales, and there are no scales on the abdomen. With thicker hairs, stout limbs and sharp and strong claws on the toes, this animal is mainly distributed from northern Paraguay to central Argentina, feeding on insects.
Big armadillo
The large armadillo is 75-100 cm long, the tail is 45-50 cm long, the weight is 45-60 kg, the body is thick, mainly black-brown, there are scales on the top of the head, there are also a pair of round small ears on both sides, the mouth is pointed and long, the outside of the body is also composed of a layer of small bone pieces, the tail and limbs also have scales, its characteristics are not much different from the woolly armadillo, but the body is much larger, this animal is mainly in Paraguay, Argentina, Venezuela, and Brazil and other regions.