Fossil mini-tank found, according to ABC News in Science, 13 December 2007. Fossil hunters in the Andes mountains have discovered the remains of a 76 cm (2ft 6in)long “tank-like mammal” covered in a shell of immovable armour plates, similar to the armour of an Ankylosaurus dinosaur, but unlike the hinged rows of plates sported by living armadillos. John Flynn of the American Museum of Natural History commented: “It looks different than anything out on the landscape today. There really isn’t anything that’s comparable in terms of body form. Scientists estimate the creature weighed about 90kg. The fossil was found along with fossils of other extinct mammals including hoofed mammal, rodents and opossums. Researchers suggest that the environment was very different from the present day “thin air, scarce water and bitter cold” at the fossil site now. Instead it was a savannah with trees and grass for grazing animals. The fossil is believed to be 18 million years old, which makes it one of the oldest members of the mammal family named glyptodonts and according the ABC article “the discovery prompted scientists to craft a new evolutionary tree for the glyptodonts and their closest kin.”
Editorial Comment: The fact that scientists had to “craft a new evolutionary tree” reminds us the such family trees only exist in the minds of human scientists who are trying to classify living things according to an already believed theory. They are not the result of anyone having seen any creatures evolve. This fossil and the other extinct animals it was found with provide more support for the Genesis Record where harsh environments with “thin air, scarce water and bitter cold” came about, only after Noah’s flood, after God warned Noah that in future Earth would experience times of heat and cold until the world ended. This glyptodont has obviously and sadly died out, but extinction is no help to the theory of evolution, because it does not explain where new animals came from. (Ref. ecology, extinction, classification)
Evidence News 18 March 2008