Glyptodon fossil map
Where fossils of Glyptodon have been found, shown on the Earth as it looked about 0 million years ago and on today’s map.
Dots are fossil collections recorded in the Paleobiology Database. The “then” view moves today’s fossil sites back to their positions 0 million years ago (the time slice nearest the median age of the fossils) using the Merdith et al. (2021) plate model; positions are approximate. Open on the timeline map →
| Group | Ice Age & later mammals |
|---|---|
| Lived | 36 million years ago to the present (Priabonian to Holocene) |
| Periods | Paleogene, Neogene, Quaternary |
| Family | Glyptodontidae |
| Named by | (Burmeister 1879) |
| Fossil records | 561 occurrences at 372 locations (PBDB) |
| Found in | Argentina, Brazil, United States, Bolivia, Uruguay, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Guatemala, Peru … |
| Rock formations | txn:43568, Lujan, Monte Hermoso, Villavieja, La Victoria, Dolores |
About Glyptodon
Glyptodon (lit. 'grooved or carved tooth'; from Ancient Greek γλυπτός (gluptós) 'sculptured' and ὀδοντ-, ὀδούς (odont-, odoús) 'tooth') is a genus of glyptodont, an extinct group of large, herbivorous armadillos that lived from the Pliocene, around 3.2 million years ago, to the early Holocene, around 11,000 years ago, in South America. It is one of, if not the, best-known genera of glyptodont. Glyptodon has a long and storied past, being the first named extinct cingulate and the type genus of the subfamily Glyptodontinae. Fossils of Glyptodon have been recorded as early as 1814 from Pleistocene aged deposits from Uruguay, though many were incorrectly referred to the ground sloth Megatherium by early paleontologists.
Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Glyptodon (revision 1377161055), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; introduction excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Ages, family, authority and fossil records: Paleobiology Database, accessed 22 October 2026. Ages are those of the rock layers the fossils were found in. Wikidata: Q131695.
