Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The typical and best-known genus of the family Glyptodontidæ; the long-tailed fossil armadillos or glyptodons, with 5 toes on the hind feet and 4 on the fore, the fifth digit of which is wanting. Species are G. clavipes and G. reticulatus, from the Pleistocene of South America.
- noun [lowercase] An animal of the family Glyptodontidæ) or Hoplophoridæ; one of the gigantic fossil armadillos of South America.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Paleon.) An extinct South American quaternary mammal, allied to the armadillos. It was as large as an ox, was covered with tessellated scales, and had fluted teeth.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun paleontology An
extinct South American quaternary mammal , allied to thearmadillos , withtessellated scales andfluted teeth .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The glyptodon has if anything replaced the mylodon in my affections—there are about 6 whole ones in the Museum of La Plata—an enormous armadillo up to 9-10 feet long, each scale of its armour looking like a Japanese chrysthanthemum.
The News From Everywhere David Mason 2011
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They had some really odd looking creatures I've never seen in any other natural history museums I've visited, like the giant armadillo creature that the website tells me is a glyptodon.
"Look at everything around us. Look at everything we've done." greygirlbeast 2010
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My great grandma would tell me stories about riding her pony to school and I wanted to ride the glyptodon.
"Look at everything around us. Look at everything we've done." greygirlbeast 2010
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[1] The glyptodon and armadillo are mammalian; the tortoise is a chelonian, a reptile, distinct classes of the animal kingdom; therefore the latter cannot be a representative of the former.
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Again, no armadillo _now living_ presents nearly so remarkable a speciality of structure as was possessed by the _extinct_ glyptodon.
On the Genesis of Species St. George Mivart
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Patience! the glyptodon and the dodo have been dead for ages.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 106, August, 1866 Various
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The glyptodon is known to have been more than eleven feet in length, and his near-kinsman, the chlamydothere, was even larger.
The Human Side of Animals Royal Dixon 1923
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One would think they were invulnerable, yet the glyptodon and the chlamydothere, with many other equally well protected creatures, have long ago disappeared from the earth, but how and why nobody knows.
The Human Side of Animals Royal Dixon 1923
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Ground-sloth and glyptodon, sabre-tooth, horse and mastodon, and all the associated animals of large size vanished, and South America, though still retaining its connection with North America, once again became a land with a mammalian life small and weak compared to that of North America and the Old World.
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Ground sloth and glyptodon, sabre-tooth, horse and mastodon, and all the associated animals of large size, vanished, and South America, though still retaining its connection with North America, once again became a land with a mammalian life small and weak compared to that of North America and the Old World.
African and European Addresses Theodore Roosevelt 1888
yarb commented on the word glyptodon
An ancient ancestor of the armadillo. Believed to have been about the same size and weight as a Volkswagen Beetle.
January 1, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word glyptodon
Am I freaky for thinking that it must have been pretty cute? (And slow.)
September 4, 2008
yarb commented on the word glyptodon
I fel like singing, and what I feel like singing is "this is ground control to glyptodon..."
October 2, 2010