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Text: Vientiane hardcore
Edited by Vientiane hardcore
«——【Preamble】】 ——»
In 2020, The Paper released a shocking popular science story about a strange-looking shelled animal that was gray-black and could bounce back from a pistol!
It happened in the early hours of the summer of 2017, a man living in Texas, USA, found a strange animal running into the yard of his house, and in order to prevent it from hurting people, he shot the animal three times.
Who knew that a shocking scene had happened, at least one of the three bullets fired was directly bounced back by the animal's hard shell, and also hit the man's jaw.
Although the bullet bounced back much less than it had been at the beginning, the man's jaw was bleeding profusely and he was taken to the hospital for emergency jaw repair.
Do you think it was an accident? No, long before this happened, there had been this bizarre incident of shelled animals bouncing bullets, and this time the ricocheted bullets went straight through the door.
It is said that an American man named Larry McElroy once used his 9mm pistol to shoot the shell animal, only to be bounced off by its thick shell, and the bullet also pierced the door and hit the man's mother-in-law in the house.
But fortunately, no one was injured this time, and it is estimated that most of the strength was buffered when the bullet passed through the door, otherwise the consequences would be really unimaginable.
So what is this hardcore shelled animal, which doesn't even care about the power of bullets?
«—[Hardcore Armadillo·]—»
This kind of shell animal that looks a little abstract is called armadillo, which is one of the "ancient mythical beasts" recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas on the mainland, and is described in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas, Dongshan Erjing": "Its shape is like a bird beak and an owl, an owl and a snake tail, and it sleeps when it sees a person, and its name is armadillo."
In addition, it is also described in the Classic of Mountains and Seas that it has a magical place: "Its song is self-defeating, and when it is seen, the locusts are defeated."
It means that the armadillo will lie down and pretend to be dead when it meets people, and as long as it appears, it means that a large number of mantis locusts will appear to eat the crops, and people will face all kinds of problems caused by locust plagues.
The armadillo is just an ordinary animal, in fact, it does not have the ability to harm crops, the reason why they appear in sync with the locusts is because the armadillo likes to eat all kinds of beetles, termites, lizards, etc., locusts and mantis are also on its diet.
An armadillo can eat about 200 catties of insects in a year, which can control pests and diseases of crops in a sense.
In addition, the armadillo is also very fond of carrion, and wherever there is an animal carcass, it is not an exaggeration to call it a "scavenger of nature".
Of course, the armadillo's hardcore is not only reflected in the body of the pest, it feeds on all kinds of poisonous snakes all year round, not only sucks the poisonous snake as a spicy strip, but also often steals snake eggs.
The armadillo eats the snake in a very hardcore way, after seeing the snake it will go up and bite the body of the poisonous snake directly, although the snake struggles desperately, but the armadillo will not let go, that "armor" does not even put the bullet in the eye, how can you be afraid of the bite of the poisonous snake.
The snake soon lost its strength, and the armadillo relented and found the snake's head, and began to feast.
The poison of the snake and the poison of the spider are a piece of cake for the armadillo, and the attacks of these two animals can also be easily blocked by the armadillo, so it can be called the "ancient divine beast" in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, which seems to be quite reasonable.
Of course, the most hardcore of the armadillo is its "motorcycle armor", which can be described as a defensive weapon, basically sweeping the mammal order, of course, it also has other very powerful defense methods, and the "motorcycle armor" complements each other.
The armadillo does not focus on offense in the animal kingdom, and its best way of protecting itself is defense, and its armor is the most important part of it.
The armadillo's shell is made up of a dense number of small bone fragments with extremely hard cuticles, so its armor is actually a bone armor.
The bony armor is divided into several areas covering the armadillo's back, and the middle is also connected by the bony armor, which looks a bit of a patchwork, but can shrink and expand, so that the armadillo can quickly shrink itself into a ball to defend itself against enemies in case of danger.
But when it holds itself into a ball, there will occasionally be a little gap between the clip and the carapace, and if the predator is more intelligent, there is a chance that the armadillo will bite.
So the armadillo does not hold itself into a ball until it is absolutely necessary, but looks for an opportunity to escape.
Despite its heavy armor, the armadillo is not slow to escape, its sense of smell and vision are quite good, and if it thinks it is about to be in danger, the armadillo will immediately use its short legs to dig into the dirt and hide itself in the dirt.
The armadillo's burrowing skills are superb, and its hard claws seem to be born for this, so some people say that the armadillo that can still be seen when riding a horse is no longer found the moment it dismounts.
The armadillo generally likes to come out at night, and during the day it likes to live in naturally formed burrows, and if it can't find such a good place, the armadillo will dig one on its own.
However, they don't seem to like spacious houses, and the armadillos' burrows are generally narrow, and there are several branching paths, but only one of these paths leads to the armadillo's habitat.
I have to say that armadillos are still very smart, so even if there are uninvited guests, they may not be able to find them in a few small roads.
As for how to manage the holes, the armadillos will hide them under leaves and hay, and if they are found and escape into the hole, they will use the "armor" on their tail to tightly block the holes to prevent predators from entering.
It can be seen that the law of nature is that one thing descends to one thing, and although the shell of the armadillo is very hard, there are still predators who can turn it into a "meal on the plate", such as the American lynx and the bear.
In the face of absolute power, it is useless to play a little clever, and the armadillo also knows this, so he will put escape in the first place to save his life.
This trick is useful, because armadillos have survived on Earth for at least 55 million years, and to be able to perpetuate their race, they need to have some hardcore real skills.
However, such a hardcore mythical beast is currently on the verge of extinction, and most of them now live in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America, and it is said that it is difficult to find them now.
What's going on here?
«—[Armadillo that has repeatedly suffered from man-made disasters]—»
Armadillos are mammals, the gestation period is generally about 40 to 120 days, and can give birth to 2 to 4 cubs of the same sex at a time, and it takes two or three years for the young armadillo to mature.
Although this breeding amount is not large, it is not so bad that it cannot be put on the table, and even so, it cannot change the fact that the armadillo is endangered.
This is because some people in the Americas occasionally find the meat of armadillos very tasty, so they hunt them and grill or cook them.
But studies suggest that many armadillos carry the leprosy virus, so people are more likely to develop leprosy in places where they are often fed than elsewhere.
In addition, the armadillo also has excellent medicinal and research value, which has caused its population to decline again and again, and some subspecies have even become extinct.
In addition, some people say that one of the most important reasons for their endangerment is the "car accidents" caused by the dense crowd of cars on the road.
Although the armadillo is hardcore, its eyes are not very good, and it is a complete myopia, so it is often impossible to see a car passing when passing by, and it is said that armadillos that have been hit and killed can often be seen on the roads of the Americas before.
People can protect armadillos through legislation, but there is no way to avoid car accidents 100%, so the survival of armadillos faces uncontrollable threats, so that this ancient mythical beast almost no longer appears.
Reference:
The surging news "My brother fired three shots at him, but was injured by a rebounding bullet, what kind of magical creature is the armadillo"2024-4-26
Chinese Natural Science Network "Armadillo"
Mango TV documentary "Rattlesnake hunts armadillo, is bounced off by armadillo's armor, and the fangs are broken"