Pampatherium

Pampatherium is an extinct genus of xenarthran that lived in the Americas during the Pleistocene. Some species went extinct right at the Pleistocene-Holocene border.

Pampatherium Temporal range: Pleistocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Cingulata
Family:	†Pampatheriidae
Genus:	†Pampatherium Ameghino, 1875[1]
Species
P. humboldtii Lund, 1839 P. mexicanum Edmund, 1996 P. pygmaeum Ameghino, 1891 P. typum Gervais & Ameghino, 1880
Synonyms
Genus synonymy Chlamytherium Lund, 1839 Chlamydotherium Lund, 1841 Species synonymy P. humboldtii: Chlamytherium humboldtii Lund, 1839 Chlamydotherium humboldtii Lund, 1841

Taxonomy

Pampatherium was one of the first fossil mammals reported from South America, with Peter Wilhelm Lund initially describing the genus as Chlamytherium in 1839 (then as Chlamydotherium in 1841). Florentino Ameghino erected the genus Pampatherium in 1875.^[2]

Distribution

Pampatherium humboldtii and P. typum lived in South America (mostly Brazil) during the Pleistocene, with P. humboldtii surviving into the very Late Pleistocene.^[3][4][5]

Pampatherium mexicanum was the only North American species, reaching as far north as Sonora, Mexico. It lived during the Rancholabrean.^[6]

Description

Pampatherium resembled a very large armadillo. One species, P. humboldtii, weighed up to 209.5 kg (462 lb).^[7] Pampatheres generally resembled armadillos, particularly in the shape of it skull, long snout, and the presence of three areas on the carapace (movable bands, scapular and pelvic shields). Among the features that distinguish them from armadillos are their posterior teeth, which are bilobate rather than peg-like. Their endocranial morphology is also similar to glyptodonts.^[7]

The osteoderms of Pampatherium have little ornamentation, lack a depressed marginal band, and those from the posterior buckler are mostly rectangular.^[8]

Pampatherium is thought to have excavated paleoburrows and would have both fought with and have been preyed upon by Arctotherium angustidens in these dens.^[9]