Farmer Jose Antonio Nievas who hails from Carlos Spegazzini in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, was driving when he stopped his car and went out.
When he came back, he had no idea that he had made a wonderful discovery.
Read on to know what he stumbled upon?
At first, it seemed like a massive stone or a dinosaur’s egg.
But to experts’ surprise, it was a shell of an ancient animal which had grown to a size of a small automobile.
The massive shell was partially covered with mud.
The news quickly spread across the globe and caught the interest of many.
As the word spread, experts came and examined the object, which they said was a glyptodont shell. Glyptodont was a large mammal which has now become extinct.
Alejandro Kramarz, a palaeontologist at the Bernadino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum, said, “There is no doubt that it looks like a glyptodont.”
Alejandro Kramarz told AFP:
Glyptodonts are the ancestors of modern-day armadillos.
These ancient animals grew up to a large size and had a shell that could weigh upto a ton.
This is what Earth Touch News has to say about the animals:
These strange mammals evolved over 18 million years ago in South America when the continent was an island and was separated from other landmasses. This isolation led to the evolution of not just glyptodonts, but also of terror birds, giant sloths and more. These animals inhabited various regions of South America for about tens of millions of years.
Experts assume that the shell which Jose found is relatively young with an approximate age of 10,000 years.
