Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Glyptodont fauna in Arizona

Two million years ago the southeastern Arizona landscape was filled with giant furry, armored, glyptodonts that had migrated from South America to mix with a northern fauna of mammoths, mastodonts, camels, horses, ground sloths, saber-tooth cats, armadillos, anteaters, and tortoises, to create a unique 'glyptodont fauna.'

Dave Gillette, paleontologist and curator at the Museum of Northern Arizona has authored a wonderful description of this creature and its prominent role for nearly 2 million years in this region, as the feature article in the AZGS Spring issue of Arizona Geology online.