A fossilized, incomplete skull preserved in the Natural History Museum of Denmark since the 19th century has been identified as belonging to a previously unrecognized genus and species of glyptodont, an extinct relative of modern armadillos that once lived in South America.
Paleoindians hunting glyptodonts, giant armored relatives of armadillos that lived during the Pleistocene. Illustration by Heinrich Harder, 1920.
The newly named species, Glyptherium deuterofructum, lived across a broad region of South America, from Brazil to Venezuela, between approximately 60,000 and 17,000 years ago.
Glyptodonts were an extinct group of giant, heavily armored relatives of modern armadillos. Some species grew as large as small cars and were among the most distinctive mammals of the Pleistocene.
“Among the mammals of the Xenarthra clade known from the Brazilian Pleistocene, giant sloths and glyptodonts stand out in the fossil record,” said paleontologist Edison Vicente Oliveira of the Federal University of Pernambuco and his colleagues.
“Glyptodonts were armored herbivores characterized by non-segmented dermal carapaces, fused lumbar vertebrae, and trilobed teeth, among other features.”
The holotype skull of Glyptherium deuterofructum was collected in the 19th century by Danish naturalist Peter Wilhelm Lund at Brazil’s famous Lagoa Santa Cave.
The fossil was cataloged as NHMD 2045557. It was later examined by Danish scientist Johannes Reinhardt and classified in 1875 as Schistosoma euphractum.
In the new study, Dr. Vicente Oliveira and his co-authors compared cranial features, teeth, ankle bones, and armored plates known as osteoderms from glyptodont specimens found in Brazil and Venezuela. They also compared the fossils with previously recognized glyptodont species from North and Central America.
The researchers concluded that the Brazilian fossil possesses a unique combination of anatomical characteristics that supports recognition as Glyptherium deuterofructum.
The newly recognized glyptodont species inhabited northeastern, southeastern, and northern Brazil, with its range extending into northern South America.
“Glyptherium deuterofructum has been recorded in the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais and São Paulo in the southeast; Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Piauí, and Alagoas in the northeast; and Tocantins and Amazonas in the north,” the scientists said.
“The species has also been recorded in Venezuela’s Falcón State.”
The discovery demonstrates how much information may still be hidden in natural history museum collections assembled generations ago. It also shows how outdated taxonomic classifications can obscure previously unrecognized biodiversity.
“The description of this new glyptodont species from Brazil highlights the need for more detailed comparisons between Venezuelan and Brazilian fossil material, including specimens assigned to Glyptherium cylindricum,” the paleontologists said.
Their paper was published in the Journal of Mammalian Evolution.
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EV Oliveira et al. 2026. The neglected Reinhardt glyptodont from Lagoa Santa, Brazil: Reassessment of its taxonomic status and description of a new species, Glyptherium. J. Mamm. Evol. 33, 41; doi: 10.1007/s10914-026-09836-0
Source: www.sci.news