Fascinating Nature
Pink Fairy Armadillo
The pink fairy armadillo has some amazing relatives: one that has identical quadruplets and can walk underwater, and ancient cousins as big as a car! Let's dig in.
Did you know?
'Armadillo' is a Spanish word that means 'little armoured one'. An armadillo's armour is made of bony plates that grow inside its skin.
A nine-banded armadillo mother usually has four babies at once, and all four are identical! That is because they all grow from one single egg.
Nine-banded armadillos can hold their breath for up to six minutes and walk along the bottom of a stream! To swim across, they swallow air to puff up their stomachs and float.
Try this: Fold an Armour Shell
Take two sheets of paper. Fold one back and forth into a fan with narrow pleats, and leave the other flat. Try bending each one over your fist. Which bends more easily into a curve? The folds work a bit like an armadillo's bands: strong plates joined by bendy skin, so the animal can still twist and curl.
Go further: Giant Ancient Cousins
Long ago, South America was home to glyptodonts, armoured animals that weighed about 2,000 kg, roughly the size of a car! Scientists studied DNA from a 12,000-year-old glyptodont shell and found a surprise. Their closest living relatives are the fairy armadillos (the family of our tiny pink friend) and the giant armadillos. Their families split apart about 35 million years ago.