By Tim Binnall
Archaeologists in Argentina are celebrating a rather sizeable discovery in the form of four massive armadillo shells which once belonged to creatures that roamed the Earth thousands of years ago. The remarkable find was reportedly made by a farmer named Juan de Dios Sota as he was walking his cattle along a stream near Buenos Aires. Due to a severe drought that has struck the country, a portion of the river bed had become exposed and, with it, a pair of puzzling protrusions had emerged from the mud.
The farmer subsequently reported the odd round shapes to local authorities, who enlisted the help of archaeologists to investigate the matter. When they arrived on the scene and began digging, the scientists were stunned to find not two, but four huge shells belonging to an ancient species of armadillo known as a glyptodont. It is believed that the creatures, which measured around six feet long and weighed a whopping one ton, resided in the region around 20,000 years ago. The four specific fossils discovered by the farmer were likely the remains of two adults and a pair of juveniles.
According to paleontologist Ricardo Bonini, who is overseeing the excavation and study of the remarkable discovery, the fact that there were four glyptodont fossils discovered together represents something of a breakthrough when it comes to learning more about the mysterious creatures. "These types of cases, in which several individuals appear together who died in the same circumstances, are really exceptional," he marveled, observing that the remarkable find "will undoubtedly give us a lot of information about these enigmatic animals,"
In addition to the unusual grouping of fossils, the way in which the creatures were found "in a living position" is also seen as a potential avenue for new insight as, in most cases, scavengers would have descended upon their remains and left the shells inverted. As such, the way in which the shells were situated has led the team to speculate that perhaps the glyptodonts had gotten stuck in the mud and were then quickly covered by sediment before any other creatures could feast upon them.