What do you get when you cross a Volkswagen Beetle with an armadillo?
An Ice Age mammal that could almost squish you like a bug.
A fossil model of the car-size glyptodont is one of several displays of extinct and living animals in a new exhibit that opens today at the International Wildlife Museum.
"Armoured Mammals: Armadillos, Glyptodonts and Pampatheres" explains the history and life of the only mammal that has a shell.
"There are 21 species of armadillos in the world," said Richard S. White Jr., a paleontologist and director of the natural history museum.
The exhibit will cover them all, said White, and will feature six taxidermy mounts, 11 or 12 skulls and fossils of three animals.
The exhibit also will include lots of photographs and a film.
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The armadillo is a modern relative of the glyptodont, which had a 6-foot-long bony shell and weighed about a ton, according to the Web site for New York's American Museum of Natural History, www.amnh.org.
"Some of the fossils are the size of the Volkswagen Beetle," said White.
The pampathere was another Ice Age relative — about 6 feet long from nose to tail and weighing 500 pounds, according to the Web site.
While all of these creatures originally made their homes in South America, they migrated into North America, White said. Glyptodont even appeared in Arizona.
One of the things visitors to the exhibit will learn is how the armadillo has helped improve human health.
"All that we know about leprosy is based on the study of the armadillo," the only other species besides humans that suffers from the tissue-destroying disease, White said.
The museum director said he hopes the exhibit will teach visitors to appreciate the diversity of a single species. "People think of the armadillo as one animal," he said, "but they range from tiny critters to great big things."
• What: "Armoured Mammals: Armadillos, Glyptodonts and Pampatheres"
• When: Through Jan. 1
• Where: International Wildlife Museum, 4800 W. Gates Pass Road
• Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays
• Admission: $7 general; $5.50 for ages 62 and older, students and military personnel; $2.50 for ages 4-12; free for 3 or younger
• Information: 629-0100 or www.thewildlifemuseum.org
