Pink fairy armadillo
Chlamyphorus truncatus
— Where the name comes from
Chlamyphorus is “cloak-bearer”, from the Greek khlamýs, the short cloak Greek horsemen fastened at the shoulder with a brooch: this animal’s armour does not sit against the body but is attached only along the spine, and hangs at the sides like a cape. Truncatus, “cut off”, describes the flat rear plate, as though the animal had been sliced clean through.
— Facts
- Group
- Mammals · Mammalia
- Order
- Armadillos
- Habitat
- Dry sandy plains with shrubs and cactus
- Range
- Central Argentina, in a narrow arid belt
- Size
- 9–12 cm, 100–120 g
- Diet
- Omnivore — ants, grubs, worms, roots
- Lifespan
- Unknown; it survives very poorly in captivity
— Characteristics
- 01
It is the smallest armadillo in the world: it fits in one hand.
- 02
The armour is attached to the body only along the backbone.
- 03
It uses the flat rear plate to plug the tunnel behind it.
— What sets it apart
The pink is not pigment: the armour is translucent and lets the blood vessels beneath show through, and the animal uses it as a radiator — pumping more blood under the plates or withdrawing it, it regulates its temperature without sweating, which underground is precious. It spends nearly all its life digging just below the surface of the sand, where it “swims” rather than walks, and is seen so rarely that of much of its biology, reproduction included, almost nothing is known.
