Scientists discover fossils of an armor-plated mammal in the Chilean Andes

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WASHINGTON.- A group of scientists searching for fossils in the Andes Mountains in Chile unearthed the remains of an armor-plated mammal, related to the armadillo, that grazed in the area 18 million years ago.

The creature, named Parapropalaehoplophorus septentrionalis, is a distant predecessor in a line of armor-plated mammals that ended with the impervious Gyptodon, a spike-tailed animal, covered in bony armor plates that was three meters long and weighed two tons.

The Gyptodon, which was the size of a Volkswagen "Beatle", disappeared some 10,000 years ago. The Parapropalaehoplophorus had similar traits, but was much smaller, weighing some 90 kilograms and measuring 76 centimeters long. Its body was covered by a shell of rigid armored plates that were different from the protection plates of present-day armadillos.

The discovery was published today in the "Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology".

The remains of other creatures from the same era were also found, including an array of extinct hoofed-mammals, rodents and animals related to the opossum.