Animal You | Armadillo | Armadillos are small or medium-sized mammals. The smallest species, the pink fairy armadillo is about the size of the squirrel in 85 g (3.0 oz) and 11 cm (4.3 inches) in total length. Many species use their sharp claws to dig for food, such as worms, and dig burrows. The nine-banded armadillo burrows rather build in moist soil near streams, rivers and streams around which lives and feeds. Species of armadillo diets vary, but they are mostly of insects, worms and other invertebrates. Some species, however, feed almost exclusively on ants and termites. As with other xenarthrans, armadillos in general low body temperature (33-36 ° C) and basal metabolic rate (40-60% of the placental mammals expected from their mass). The armor is formed by plates of dermal bone covered relatively small, overlapping epidermal scales called "plaques", consisting of bone with a covering of horn. The lower part of the animal is not armed, and is simply covered with soft skin and coat
This armor-like skin appears to be the main defense of many armadillos, although most escape predators by fleeing (often in awkward spots, from which their armor protects them) or digging to safety. Only three bands from South America (armadillos Tolypeutes) are highly dependent on their armor for protection. Other armadillo species can not roll up because they are too many dishes. Nine-banded Armadillo North American tendency to jump straight in the air when surprised, and consequently often collides with truck or fenders of passing vehicles Armadillos have very poor eyesight and use their keen sense of smell to hunt. Armadillos many choose not divided premolars and molars, but usually incisors or canines. Teething nine banded armadillo is P 7/7, M 1/1 = 32.
Gestation lasts 60 to 120 days, depending on the species, but the nine-banded armadillo also exhibits delayed implantation, so that young people are not born eight months after mating. Armadillos are solitary animals that do not share their burrows with other adults Armadillos are often used in the study of leprosy, since along with mangabey monkeys, rabbits and mice (on their feet), to the few known species susceptible to systemic disease. (The leprosy bacterium is difficult to culture and armadillos have a body temperature of 34 ° C (93F), similar to human skin.) People can contract an infection of leprosy in the management armadillos or consumption of armadillo meat. Why armadillos are native to the New World, at one point taken from the disease to humans. The armadillo is a natural reservoir of Chagas disease. The nine-banded armadillo also serves science through its unique reproductive system, where four children were born genetically identical, the result of the original egg. Because they are always genetically identical, the group of four young a good subject for Other species that this function see wasps, certain flatworms aquatic invertebrates other.
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