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http://www.bbc.com/news/35630712
Glyptodonts, large armored South American mammals which lived from the Miocene to the last Ice Age, looked like gigantic prehistoric armadillos. Now DNA analysis has shown that that is exactly what they were.
Glyptodonts, large armored South American mammals which lived from the Miocene to the last Ice Age, looked like gigantic prehistoric armadillos. Now DNA analysis has shown that that is exactly what they were.
Dr Delsuc and his colleagues used computer predictions to reconstruct some likely DNA sequences of armadillo ancestors, based on the genes of living species.
They then made RNA "bait" based on these sequences and used it to fish for glyptodont DNA in a tiny, mashed-up sample of shell from a fossil in a Buenos Aires museum.
Dr Delsuc and his colleagues are confident they have resolved the position of the glyptodonts in the tree of life - and they are nestled deep in the "cingulata" order, among myriad branches of armadillos.
"Glyptodonts in fact represent an extinct lineage that likely originated 35 million years ago within the armadillo radiation," said co-author Hendrik Poinar from McMaster University, Canada.