Other Ancient Relatives

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After studying the images from the scene, paleontologists confirmed without a doubt that the fossilized shell indeed belonged to an ancient glyptodon. These mammals lived in South America for tens of millions of years, and even migrated as far north as Guatemala. While their shells were mainly for protection, their tails were used in intraspecies fighting, much like male-to-male competitions among deer using their antlers.

“We all thought it was a joke…”

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Jose’s wife, Reina Coronel, said that at first, her husband believed the black scaly shell was a dinosaur egg. “My husband went out to the car and when he came back he said, ‘Hey, I just found an egg that looks like it came from a dinosaur,'” she recalled. “We all laughed because we thought it was a joke.”