The Family Glyptodontidae ("carved tooth") were a group of large armadillo-like mammals. They had a large, bony "shell" on their backs for protection from predators, such as Sabre-toothed cats.
The Glyptodonts first appeared during the Early Miocene Epoch (22.5 to 5 million years ago). They developed from armadillo-like mammals with bony plates of "armour" which were arranged in rings. They were herbivores (plant eaters), and reached the peak of their success as grazers on the grasslands of South America and the Southern regions of North America during the Pliocene Epoch (5 to 1.8 million years ago) and Pleistocene Epoch (1.8 million years ago to 11,000 years ago). They were so succesful that they survived until historical times, and are mentioned in the oral history of the Patagonian Indians!
The Glyptodonts did not have teeth in the front of their mouths, but they did have powerful grinding teeth at the back. This characteristic is referred to as "edentate," and the Glyptodonts share this characteristic with modern armadillos and with the sloths. They had massive jaws with projections on their cheekbones which provided attachment sites for powerful chewing muscles.
By the end of the Pliocene Epoch, the rings of armour had become fused into a rigid, bony, dome-shaped "shell." This shell was composed of many polygonal (many-sided) bony plates which fit together. The bony plates not only composed the shell, but also made up a "helmet" on its head and also protected its tail with a series of rings or even a solid tube of bone. This armour accounted for 20 percent of the Glyptodonts' weight.
Some of the Glyptodonts became very large. One of the largest was Glyptodon, which lived in Argentina during the Pleistocene Epoch. Glyptodon was 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall and 10 feet (3.3 meters) long. Its shell alone was almost the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. Glyptodon was described and named in 1839 by Sir Richard Owen, three years before he named the Dinosauria!
Doedicurus was another well-known Glyptodont. In addition to its armoured shell, Doedicurus also had a powerful defensive weapon at the end of its tail. It had a bony club covered with spikes at the end of a stiff shaft on its tail, similar to the tail clubs of the armoured Ankylosaur dinosaurs. This weapon could have been flailed about at predators, and could do a lot of damage if it struck home. It would have had the force that a medieval mace or morningstar had.
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