Dasypus bellus

Dasypus bellus, the beautiful armadillo, is an extinct armadillo species endemic to North America and South America from the Pleistocene, living from 1.8 mya—11,000 years ago, existing for approximately 1.789 million years.

Dasypus bellus

15extinction15A · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
beautiful armadilloPBDB
Sits inside
DasypusPBDB
Diet
insectivore, frugivorePBDB, for Dasypus
Life habit
semifossorialPBDB, for Dasypus
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 1.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.8 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 4.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 4 of 65 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 61 of 65 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 65 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.9–2.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.6–2.4 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.3–2.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.1–1.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.9–1.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.7–1.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.6–1.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.4–1.2 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.2–1.0 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.0–867 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences867 ka–693 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences693 ka–520 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences520 ka–347 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences347 ka–173 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences173 ka–0 Mya — about 33 occurrences1.8 Mya129 ka5.2 Mya0 Mya

65 occurrences of Dasypus bellus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

65 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

11 formations

Bermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WBermont — 27.00°N, 82.20°WTamiami — 27.37°N, 82.45°WTamiami — 27.30°N, 80.80°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WWicomico — 29.42°N, 82.22°WLong Pine — 42.38°N, 98.23°WCaloosahatchee — 27.04°N, 81.82°WGood Creek — 34.00°N, 99.80°WFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°WSilver Bluff — 32.56°N, 80.29°WPenholloway — 32.86°N, 80.04°WTen Mile Hill Beds — 32.98°N, 80.17°WShuler — 32.71°N, 96.71°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Dasypus bellus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 49 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dasypus bellus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Dasypus bellus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

857 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 64 sites for Dasypus bellus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

35 references

Each of the 65 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 23 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Dasypus bellus

Credit
15extinction15A
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Dasypus bellus · UF:VP:1625

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itDasypus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Simpson 1929)