Contact:
Mag. My Hue McGowran
Phone: +43-1-81140-308
E-Mail: mcgowran@newsfox.com
| Pressbox | 
|
Lima, Peru (pte019/20.05.2005/11:12) - The fossil of a giant armadillo has been found on private property in southern Peru. The herbivorous animal lived two million years ago and was roughly the size of a Volkswagen beetle.
The 'glyptodon' was one of the largest armadillos that lived in the Ice Ages. It measured 6 feet by 6 inches in length, including the tail, 3 feet by 6 inches in width and had an average height of 3 feet.
An archaeologist from the National Institute of Culture http://inc.perucultural.org.pe/index1.htm in the southern city of Cuzco, Pedro Luna, said, "It was an animal that appeared 2 million years before Christ and would have died out 10,000 to 15,000 years B.C. because of a freeze."
The armadillo family is known to have evolved about 50 million years ago in South America.
According to Luna, this fossil is the fifth found in Cusco since 1998, which shows that the region had a lake and lush foliage.
(end)
|
|
