Doedicurus clavicaudatus was a prehistoric glyptodont, living during the Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

 until the end of the last glacial period, some 11,000 years ago. This was the largest known glyptodontid

Glyptodontidae

Glyptodonts were large, more heavily armored relatives of extinct pampatheres and modern armadillos.They first evolved during the Miocene in South America, which remained their center of species diversity...

, and one of the better known members of the New World Pleistocene megafauna

Pleistocene megafauna

Pleistocene megafauna is the set of species of large animals — mammals, birds and reptiles — that lived on Earth during the Pleistocene epoch and became extinct in a Quaternary extinction event. These species appear to have died off as humans expanded out of Africa and southern Asia,...

, with a height of 1.5 meters (5 ft) and an overall length of around 4 meters. It had a huge domed carapace

Carapace

A carapace is a dorsal section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the underside is called the plastron.-Crustaceans:In crustaceans, the...

 that was made of many tightly fitted scutes, somewhat similar to that of its modern-day relative, the armadillo

Armadillo

Armadillos are New World placental mammals, known for having a leathery armor shell. Dasypodidae is the only surviving family in the order Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra along with the anteaters and sloths. The word armadillo is Spanish for "little armored one"...

s. Its tail was surrounded by a flexible sheath of bone and had long spikes or knobs on the end, at least in male individuals (McNeill Alexander et al. 1999).

D. clavicaudatus inhabited woodlands and grasslands and was herbivorous

Herbivore

Herbivores are organisms that are anatomically and physiologically adapted to eat plant-based foods. Herbivory is a form of consumption in which an organism principally eats autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. More generally, organisms that feed on autotrophs in...

. Its tail club was probably used in intraspecific conflict rather than defense against predators like Smilodon

Smilodon

Smilodon , often called a saber-toothed cat or saber-toothed tiger, is an extinct genus of machairodonts. This saber-toothed cat was endemic to North America and South America, living from near the beginning through the very end of the Pleistocene epoch .-Etymology:The nickname "saber-tooth" refers...

unlike the superficially similar club of the Ankylosaurs

Ankylosauria

Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the order Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs. They are first known to have appeared in the early Jurassic Period of...

. For one thing, the latter use would have been hard since the animal's field of vision was so limited that it would essentially have had to blindly thrash the tail club about. In addition, carapaces have been found which show fractures that were produced by roughly the same amount of energy as could be produced by the tail muscles (McNeill Alexander et al. 1999).

Its name means "Pestle Tail", referring to how, if the spikes were removed, it would resemble a pestle.

The carapace was firmly anchored to the pelvis

Pelvis

In human anatomy, the pelvis is the lower part of the trunk, between the abdomen and the lower limbs .The pelvis includes several structures:...

, but loose around the shoulder. Its front bore an additional, smaller dome. This has been interpreted as a fat

Fat

Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and generally insoluble in water. Chemically, fats are triglycerides, triesters of glycerol and any of several fatty acids. Fats may be either solid or liquid at room temperature, depending on their structure...

-filled space, similar to a camel

Camel

A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...

's hump, which would have stored energy for the dry season and cushioned blows of the tail of rival animals (McNeill Alexander et al. 1999).

Fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

s of D. clavicaudatus are found in North America and South America, especially the Ensenada Formation in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. Given the late date of its disappearance, it was encountered and probably also hunted by the first human settlers of South America.

In popular culture

These animals were featured in Episode 5 of the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 Walking with Beasts

Walking with Beasts

Walking with Beasts is a 2001 six-part television documentary miniseries, produced by the BBC in the United Kingdom, narrated by Kenneth Branagh. In North America it has been retitled Walking with Prehistoric Beasts, and the original Discovery Channel broadcast was narrated by Stockard Channing...

.
It is also featured as one of the adoptable animals in Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals

Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals

Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals is a video game expansion pack for Zoo Tycoon 2 released October 17, 2007. The expansion focuses around extinct animals, mainly dinosaurs or ice age creatures, as well as more recently extinct creatures like the dodo, thylacine and quagga.This expansion pack follows...