Some, including four species of Dasypus, are widely distributed over the Americas, whereas others, such as Yepes's mulita, are restricted to small ranges. They are particularly diverse in Paraguay (where 11 species exist) and surrounding areas. Today, all extant armadillo species are still present in South America. (Some of their much larger cingulate relatives, the pampatheres and chlamyphorid glyptodonts, made the same journey.) The recent formation of the Isthmus of Panama allowed a few members of the family to migrate northward into southern North America by the early Pleistocene, as part of the Great American Interchange. Due to the continent's former isolation, they were confined there for most of the Cenozoic. Like all of the Xenarthra lineages, armadillos originated in South America.
Recent genetic research suggests that an extinct group of giant armored mammals, the glyptodonts, should be included within the lineage of armadillos, having diverged some 35 million years ago, more recently than previously assumed. The dagger symbol, "†", denotes extinct groups.
Three-banded armadillo skeleton on display at the Museum of Osteology.Īrmadillos (meaning "little armored ones" in Spanish) are New World placental mammals in the order Cingulata.