Paleontologists received the best gift ever this Christmas. Way down in Argentina a farmer, Jose Antonio Nievas, stumbled upon something amazing. He found a weird, giant rock resting in a creek on his property near the city of Carlos Spegazzini. It was huge, almost perfectly round, and nearly a meter in diameter, leading Jose to believe this was a dinosaur egg.
Experts around the country identified the object as the shell of a glyptodon through video and photos. A glyptodon is an ancient South American cousin of the armadillo from the Pleistocene epoch. These guys were the size and weight of a Volkswagen Beetle, but a damn sight tougher. These behemoths are believed to have been hunted to extinction by humans nearly 10,000 years ago, illustrating the sheer badassery of Homo sapiens.
According to Agence France-Presse, paleontologist Laura Cruz remarked “the shell is impressive because it is complete”. From the photo, one can see it’s not that complete anymore, as it started cracking once exposed to the elements.
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