Doedicurus clavicaudatus

Doedicurus clavicaudatus was one of the largest glyptodonts, reaching roughly the size of a small car with a massive domed carapace covering most of its body. It lived during the Pleistocene epoch in South America alongside other giant megafauna.

Doedicurus possessed a heavy tail club armed with a spiked tip that is widely interpreted as a weapon for intraspecific combat—fights between rival males. Fossil evidence includes damage to glyptodont carapaces consistent with strikes from such tail clubs.

Doedicurus was a glyptodont, a group within the order Cingulata, which also includes modern armadillos. Both glyptodonts and armadillos share a common ancestor, but glyptodonts evolved vastly larger body sizes and rigid dome-shaped armor unlike the flexible bands of living armadillos.

Doedicurus went extinct during the late Pleistocene, part of the broader wave of megafaunal extinctions that swept through the Americas. Climate shifts and the arrival of human populations in South America are both considered contributing factors.