Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Dino Update

ABC News: Fossils of ancient tank-like mammal found in Andes: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists searching for fossils high in the Andes mountains in Chile have unearthed the remains of a tank-like mammal related to armadillos that grazed 18 million years ago.

'It looks different than almost anything out on the landscape today. There really isn't anything that's comparable today in terms of its body form,' John Flynn of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, one of the scientists, said in a telephone interview.

The creature, Parapropalaehoplophorus septentrionalis, was a primitive relative of a line of heavily armored mammals that culminated in the massive, impregnable Gyptodon, a two-ton, 10-foot(3-meter)-long beast covered in armored plates and a spiky tail."

1 comment:

Peter Rozovsky said...

What's with the vehicle metaphors? I recently read about the fossil remains of a creature that must have been the size of a bus, according to a news account. (The story did not specify which type of bus.) I expect that the next major fossil find will be of a creature the size of a Hummer with all the options.
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