An incomplete fossilized skull that has remained in the collections of the Natural History Museum of Denmark since the 19th century has turned out to represent a previously unrecognized species of glyptodont (genus Glyptotherium) that once roamed South America. Paleoindians hunting a glyptodont, a relative of the armadillo that lived during the Pleistocene epoch. By Heinrich Harder, 1920. The newly named species, Glyptotherium deuterophractum, lived between 60,000 and 17,000 years ago in a swath of South America stretching from Brazil to Venezuela. The animal was a type of glyptodont, the extinct clade of giant, heavily armed relatives of modern armadillos, some of which grew to the size of a small car. “Among the mammals of the “The latter included armored herbivores characterized by a bandless dermal bony shell, fusion within the lumbar spine, trilobed teeth, among others.” The holotype skull of Glyptotherium deuterophractum was collected in the 19th century by Danish naturalist Peter Wilhelm Lund in the famous Lagoa Santa caves in Brazil. Cataloged as NHMD 2045557, the specimen was later examined by another Danish scientist, Johannes Reinhardt, who in 1875 classified it as ‘Schistopleurum euphractum’. In a new study, Dr. Vicente Oliveira and his co-authors compared cranial features of the skull, as well as glyptodont teeth, ankle bones, and armor plates called osteoderms from Brazil and Venezuela with those of known glyptodont species from North and Central America. They concluded that the Brazilian animal was distinct enough to deserve its own name, Glyptotherium deuterophractum. The species was found in the northeast, southeast and north of Brazil, and its range extended to northern South America. “Glyptotherium deuterophractum is recorded in the southeast of Brazil, in the states of Minas Gerais and São Paulo; in the northeast of Brazil, in the states of Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Piauí and Alagoas; and in the north of Brazil, in the states of Tocantins and Amazonas,” they said. “The species is also recorded for northwest Venezuela, in the state of Falcón.” The discovery underscores how much remains to be learned from museum collections assembled generations ago, and how outdated taxonomic assumptions can obscure biodiversity that was, in fact, hidden in plain sight. “The description of this new species of Brazilian glyptodont highlights the need for a more detailed comparison of the Venezuelan and Brazilian materials with the hypodigm of Glyptotherium cylindricum,” the paleontologists said. Their paper was published August 15 in the Journal of Mammalian Evolution. _____E.V. Oliveira et al. 2026. The abandoned Reinhardt’s glyptodont from Lagoa Santa, Brazil: a reassessment of the taxonomic status and description of a new species of Glyptotherium. J. Mom. Evolution 33, 41; doi:10.1007/s10914-026-09836-0
