Hoplophorus is an extinct genus of glyptodont, a subfamily of armadillos. The only confidently known species was H. euphractus, found in Pleistocene deposits in Brazil, though fossils possibly from another species are known from Bolivia.
Hoplophorus is an extinct genus of glyptodont, a subfamily of armadillos. The only confidently known species was H. euphractus, found in Pleistocene deposits in Brazil, though fossils possibly from another species are known from Bolivia.
== History and taxonomy == Hoplophorus euphractus was first described in 1837 by Danish paleontologist Peter Wilhelm Lund on the basis of fossilized osteoderms and carapace fragments unearthed in the Upper Pleistocene cave deposits in Lagoa Santa, Minas Gérais, Brazil. This was one of the first glyptodonts to be described. Lund attributed many other fossils to the species over several years, including limb bones, teeth, vertebrae, foot remains, and an incomplete skull. Lund later erected 3 more Hoplophorus species based on the fossils from Lago Santa: H. selloi, H. minor, & H. meyeri. All three didn't receive proper descriptions, making them nomen nuda, and many of the fossils used to name them came from Glyptodon, Dayspus, or H. euphractus. In 1845, British paleontologist Sir Richard Owen named a new species of Glyptodon, G. ornatus, based on osteoderms recovered from Ensenadan strata in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. This species was synonymized with H. euphractus by French paleontologist G. Pouchet in 1866, but later analysis that reversed this synonymy placed G. ornatus in the genus but as a distinct species.
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