Glyptodon Coloring Pages
A glyptodon wore a dome of hundreds of bony plates fitted together like tiles, and the biggest ones were about the size of a small car. They weren't dinosaurs. They were Ice Age mammals and close relatives of today's armadillos, and they lived millions of years after the dinosaurs were gone.
Jump to: The Shell | Where They Lived | What They Ate | Armadillo Cousins
A Shell Like Tiles
Every plate in a glyptodon's shell was a piece of bone, and together they made one solid dome. Unlike an armadillo, it couldn't roll up, so the shell did all the protecting, with a bony cap on the head and a tail ringed in bone to match. Some glyptodons even had a tail that ended in a spiked club.
Where Glyptodons Lived
Glyptodons first appeared in South America, where wide grasslands gave them plenty to eat. When North and South America joined together, they wandered north too, and their fossils have been found all the way from Argentina to the southern United States.
What Glyptodons Ate
Glyptodons ate plants, and grass was probably the main course. Their strong jaws and tall back teeth were built for grinding it up.
Armadillo Cousins
Glyptodons and armadillos share the same ancestors and the same armoured idea. Armadillos stayed small and nimble, while glyptodons grew to the size of a car. The last glyptodons died out about 10,000 years ago, near the end of the Ice Age.
