Armadillo

=Armadillo=

Scientific Name:
Dasypodidae

[[image:armadillo.jpg align="right"]]
The armadillo has sharp claws,short legs, and tough armor. The armor is formed by plates of dermal bone covered in relatively small, overlapping epidermal scales called "scutes". These are made of bone with a covering of horn. In most species, there are rigid shields over the shoulders and hips, with a number of bands, separated by flexible skin covering the backs and flanks. Additional armor covers the top of the head,the upper parts of the legs,and the tail. The underside of the armadillo is never armored, and is simply covered with soft skin and fur.

Habitat/Ecosystem:
Since their are many species of armadillo, various armadillos live in various habitats in South America such as: savannahs, dry woodlands, woody grasses, forests, shrubland, grassland, deserts, arable land,and cerrado plains.

South American Gray Fox:
The South American Gray Fox is a small to medium sized canids, (slightly smaller than the median-sized domestic dog) with a long narrow snout, bushy tail, and smokey gray in color.

Squirrel Monkey:
The Squirrel Monkey's fur is short and close, olive colored at the shoulders,and yellowish orange on its back and extremities.

[[image:squirrel-monkey-7.jpg width="303" height="303" align="right"]]
Their throat and ears are white, and their mouths are black. The upper part of their head is hairy.

Mimosa pudica:
The stem of the plant is erect in young plants, but becomes creeping or trailing with age. The stem is slender, branching, and sparsely to dense prickly. The leaves are bipinnalely compound, with one or two pinnae pairs, and 10-26 leaflets per pinna. The petioles are also prickly. Pale pink or purple flower heads arise from the leaf axils.

Justicia carnea:
Justicia carnea is an upright, evergreen shrub, 3 to 7 ft tall and wide, with large, 6-inch long dark green leaves. It also has upwardly- facing plumes of tubular, slightly fragrant flower clusters in rose-purple, red, yellow, orange, apricot, or white. Many stems appear from the center of the plant and rise up several feet before branching.

Adaptations:
sharp claws: for burrowing hard shell: protection from pretators keen sense of smell: poor eye sight

Human Use:
Humans use armadillos in medical research to study leprosy in humans. Also, people in South America __EAT__ armadillos!!!

[|WORDSEARCH]

[|CROSSWORD]