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But the glyptodont wasn't a reptile. So what was it? There is a relative of the glyptodont that’s still alive today. It's the armadillo and it's a mammal, the only mammal with this kind of armor in the whole of North America. It may give us some idea of how an ice age glyptodont might have looked when alive.
但是雕齒獸卻并不是爬行動物。那它又屬于什么動物呢？如今還存活著一種與雕齒獸存在“血緣關系”的動物。這就是犰狳，犰狳是一種哺乳動物，并且是整個北美唯一擁有這種的“盔甲”哺乳動物。這能讓我們想象得出那些冰河時代的雕齒獸活著的時候大概是什么樣子。
Armadillos have poor eyesight and rely mostly on their sense of smell. Much of their time is spent nose to the ground in search of food.
犰狳不具備良好的視力，主要依賴其敏銳的嗅覺。他們大部分的時間都在用鼻子探索土地以嗅出食物。
Like the glyptodont, they are covered in a layer of bony scutes. But the armadillo's body armor is surprisingly thin and flexible and doesn't slow its owner down. So what about the glyptodont?
和雕齒獸一樣，犰狳的身上也覆蓋著一層骨鱗。但是犰狳身上的盔甲卻驚人的薄，并且柔韌性很強，犰狳并不會因其減慢速度。那么雕齒獸的盔甲又是什么樣呢?
The glyptodont's scute casing was up to 5 centimetres thick and fused into a solid shell. The shell alone is extremely heavy. And the entire animal probably weighed as much as a small car. It had extremely sturdy legs and five toes on each foot to spread its massive weight. The heavy tail probably acted as a counterbalance. So the glyptodont wasn't built for speed, but inside all this body armor, you'd imagine it was well protected. But one fossil skull tells a different story. It suggests the glyptodont's defences weren't impenetrable.
雕齒獸的盔甲骨有5厘米厚，并且是一整塊固體的殼。光光整個背殼便十分沉重。雕齒獸整個身體的重量可能相當于一輛小汽車。它的腿部十分健壯，每只腳上的5個腳趾都增加了它的體重。它沉重的尾巴可能作為一個平衡桿。因此雕齒獸并不擅長速度，但是在如此的“盔甲”下面，你可以想象它的身體被保護地如何良好。但是化石的頭骨卻告訴了我們一個不同的故事——雕齒獸的防御力并不是那么強大。
英文文本來自普特英語，譯文屬可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可不得轉載.
