Pink Fairy Armadillos Have a Weird Double Skin Not Seen in Any Other Mammal

By Richard Pallardy & LiveScience

Pink fairy armadillos — the smallest species of armadillo — have a singular double pores and skin, scientists have revealed.

In a brand new examine, printed Dec. 19, 2023 within the Journal of Zoology, researchers studied the microscopic anatomy of sections of pink fairy armadillo (Chlamyphorus truncatus) pores and skin with and with out osteoderms — bony plates embedded within the pores and skin. In doing this, they uncovered the distinctive and “peculiar” second layer of pores and skin underneath the animal’s dorsal protect. 

“As unusual as it might appear, the animal possesses a double layer of pores and skin,” lead creator Cecilia Krmpotic, a biologist with the Argentine Nationwide Scientific and Technical Analysis Council, instructed Reside Science. “The outermost layer, housing cornified scales [in which dead tissue forms a thickened, protective layer] and osteoderms, acts as a mantle or protecting over the interior layer, which shows an considerable and superb white fur. This double pores and skin is a singular characteristic amongst mammals.”

In distinction, the 19 different identified species of armadillo have a single layer of pores and skin on their backs, which is roofed by the scales and osteoderms that type the animals’ armor. 

Pink fairy armadillos are simply 6 inches (15 centimeters) lengthy and weigh 3.5 ounces (100 grams). They’re native to central Argentina, the place they dwell in burrows excavated by their proportionally monumental claws. Researchers suppose they eat largely ants and different bugs. Nonetheless, their habits are poorly understood, and most captive specimens have perished in a matter of days.

The protecting armor of a pink fairy armadillo is usually divided into two zones: one protect covers the top, whereas a dorsal protect covers the remainder of the physique, Krmpotic mentioned. The dorsal protect is additional divided right into a pectoral buckler, protecting the higher again — made up of a collection of moveable bands that allows the animal to retain flexibility — and a pelvic buckler protecting the posterior area.

The armor serves each to guard in opposition to potential predators and to assist the animal’s underground life-style. 

Whereas their bigger kinfolk spend vital quantities of time on the floor, pink fairy armadillos dwell largely underground. 

“The evolution in the direction of a very subterranean life-style within the fairy armadillo’s ancestral lineage is estimated to have taken place between 32 and 17 million years in the past,” Krmpotic mentioned. This shift was pushed by altering environmental situations that led to extra arid ecosystems in southern South America, she added. 

The construction of pink fairy armadillos’ dermis, or pores and skin, with scales is just like that seen in juveniles from different armadillo species, the place the scales are nonetheless creating.

Its distinctive exterior traits are seemingly an adaptation to a life spent digging via sandy soil. “The pliability and lightness of the dorsal protect allow it to adapt to the form of the tunnels,” Krmpotic mentioned. 

The pelvic buckler is especially suited to this life-style. “The osteoderms forming the pelvic buckler are inclined to fuse with one another and with the pelvic girdle and sacrum [the fused vertebrae between the pelvic bones]. The pelvic buckler acts as a piston, compacting sediment within the rear a part of the tunnels because it advances,” Krmpotic mentioned.

As distinctive as it’s, the armadillo’s physique protecting seems to be just like that of different subterranean mammals and has extremely versatile hairs that seem to assist it transfer via its underground tunnels. 

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