0_Wizard
Hey so Armadillos right, apparently they are only in the Americas. 
All species are native to the Americas, where they inhabit a variety of different environments.
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Dasypus
Dasypus is the only extant genus in the family Dasypodidae. Its species are known as long-nosed or naked-tailed armadillos. They are largely found in South, Central, and North America. "Dasypus" are solitary mammals that are primarily nocturnal to avoid temperature extremes and predation. They exist in numerous habitats ranging from brush to grassland areas and are mainly insectivorous. The most common and widespread of the "Dasypus" species is the nine-banded armadillo ("Dasypus novemcintus"), which is commonly used in the study of leprosy due to its unique ability to contract the disease. "Dasypus" are primitive mammals known for their hard armor like shell, called a carapace.
Armadillo
Armadillos are New World placental mammals in the order Cingulata with a leathery armour shell. The Chlamyphoridae and Dasypodidae are the only surviving families in the order, which is part of the superorder Xenarthra, along with the anteaters and sloths. The word "armadillo" means "little armoured one" in Spanish. The Aztecs called them "āyōtōchtli" , Nahuatl for "turtle-rabbit": "āyōtl" (turtle) and "tōchtli" (rabbit). The Portuguese word for "armadillo" is "tatu" which derives from the Tupi language. Similar names are also found in other, especially European, languages. About nine extant genera and 21 extant species of armadillo have been described, some of which are distinguished by the number of bands on their armour.
Pink fairy armadillo
The pink fairy armadillo ("Chlamyphorus truncatus") or pichiciego is the smallest species of armadillo (mammals of the families Chlamyphoridae and Dasypodidae, recognized by a bony armor shell), first described by R. Harlan in 1825. This desert-adapted animal is endemic to central Argentina and can be found inhabiting sandy plains, dunes, and scrubby grasslands. Pink fairy armadillos have small eyes, silky yellowish white fur, and a flexible dorsal shell that is solely attached to its body by a thin dorsal membrane. In addition, its spatula-shaped tail protrudes from a vertical plate at the blunt rear of its shell.
Six-banded armadillo
The six-banded armadillo ("Euphractus sexcinctus"), also known as the yellow armadillo, is an armadillo found in South America. The sole extant member of its genus, it was first described by Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus in 1758. The six-banded armadillo is typically between in head-and-body length, and weighs . The carapace (hard shell on the back) is pale yellow to reddish brown, marked by scales of equal length, and scantily covered by buff to white bristle-like hairs. The forefeet have five distinct toes, each with moderately developed claws. Six-banded armadillos are efficient diggers and form burrows to live in and search for prey.
Nine-banded armadillo
The nine-banded armadillo ("Dasypus novemcinctus"), or the nine-banded, long-nosed armadillo, is a medium-sized mammal found in North, Central, and South America, making it the most widespread of the armadillos. Its ancestors originated in South America, and remained there until the formation of the Isthmus of Panama allowed them to enter North America as part of the Great American Interchange. The nine-banded armadillo is a solitary, mainly nocturnal animal, found in many kinds of habitats, from mature and secondary rainforests to grassland and dry scrub. It is an insectivore, feeding chiefly on ants, termites, and other small invertebrates.
Plesiorycteropus
Plesiorycteropus, also known as the bibymalagasy or Malagasy aardvark, is a recently extinct eutherian mammalian genus from Madagascar. Upon its description in 1895, it was classified with the aardvark, but more recent studies have found little evidence to link it to aardvarks or any other order of mammals. Molecular evidence instead suggests that it is related to the tenrecs. Two species are currently recognized, the larger "P. madagascariensis" and the smaller "P. germainepetterae". They probably overlapped in distribution, as subfossil remains of both species have been found in the same site.
Cingulata
Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra, is an order of armored New World placental mammals. Dasypodids and chlamyphorids, the armadillos, are the only surviving families in the order. Two groups of cingulates much larger than extant armadillos (maximum body mass of 45 kg (100 lb) in the case of the giant armadillo) existed until recently: pampatheriids, which reached weights of up to 200 kg (440 lb) and chlamyphorid glyptodonts, which attained masses of 2,000 kg (4,400 lb) or more. The cingulate order originated in South America during the Paleocene epoch, and due to the continent's former isolation remained confined to it during most of the Cenozoic.
1_Apprentice
I'm not familiar with armadillos. Why are they only found in the Americas?
0_Wizard
Well, they're New World mammals. So a distant ancestor must've crossed over from the old world a long time ago.
Armadillos are New World placental mammals in the order Cingulata with a leathery armour shell.
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Primate
A primate ( ) is a mammal of the order Primates (Latin: "prime, first rank"). In taxonomy, primates include two distinct lineages, strepsirrhines and haplorhines. Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests; many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three-dimensional environment. Most primate species remain at least partly arboreal. With the exception of humans, who inhabit every continent, most primates live in tropical or subtropical regions of the Americas, Africa and Asia. They range in typical size from Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, which weighs only , to the eastern gorilla, weighing over .
List of Plasmodium species
The genus "Plasmodium" is a member of the order Haemosporidia. It is the largest genus within this order and currently consists of over 250 species. They cause malaria in many different vertebrates. The species in this genus are entirely parasitic with part of their life cycle spent in a vertebrate host and another in an invertebrate host - usually a mosquito. Vertebrates infected by members of this genus include mammals, birds and reptiles. Host range among the mammalian orders is non uniform. At least 29 species infect non human primates; rodents outside the tropical parts of Africa are rarely affected; a few species are known to infect bats, porcupines and squirrels; carnivores, insectivores and marsupials are not known to act as hosts.
Evolution of the wolf
The evolution of the wolf occurred over a geologic time scale of 800 thousand years, transforming the first Middle Pleistocene wolf specimen that is recognized as being morphologically similar to "Canis lupus" into today's dog, dingo and gray wolf. Ecological factors including habitat type, climate, prey specialization and predatory competition has greatly influenced the wolf's genetic population structure and cranio-dental plasticity. Wolves went through a population bottleneck 20,000 years before present (YBP), which indicates that many wolf populations had gone extinct at a time that coincided with the Last Glacial Maximum and the expansion of modern humans worldwide with their technology for capturing large game.
Mammal
Mammals are the vertebrates within the class Mammalia ( from Latin "mamma" "breast"), a clade of endothermic amniotes distinguished from reptiles (including birds) by the possession of a neocortex (a region of the brain), hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands. Females of all mammal species nurse their young with milk, secreted from the mammary glands. Mammals include the largest animal on the planet, the blue whale. The basic body type is a terrestrial quadruped, but some mammals are adapted for life at sea, in the air, in trees, underground or on two legs. The largest group of mammals, the placentals, have a placenta, which enables the feeding of the fetus during gestation.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans, also known as American Indians, Indians, Indigenous Americans and other terms, are the indigenous peoples of the United States. There are over 500 federally recognized tribes within the U.S., about half of which are associated with Indian reservations. The term excludes Native Hawaiians and some Alaska Natives. The ancestors of modern Native Americans arrived in what is now the United States at least 15,000 years ago, possibly much longer, from Asia through Beringia. A vast variety of peoples, societies and cultures subsequently developed. Native Americans were greatly affected by the European colonization of the Americas, which began in 1492, and their population declined precipitously due to introduced diseases, warfare, and slavery.
Evolution of the horse
The evolution of the horse, a mammal of the family Equidae, occurred over a geologic time scale of 50 million years, transforming the small, dog-sized, forest-dwelling "Eohippus" into the modern horse. Paleozoologists have been able to piece together a more complete outline of the evolutionary lineage of the modern horse than of any other animal. Much of this evolution took place in North America, where horses originated but became extinct about 10,000 years ago. The horse belongs to the order Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates), the members of which all share hooved feet and an odd number of toes on each foot, as well as mobile upper lips and a similar tooth structure.
Human evolution
Human evolution is the evolutionary process that led to the emergence of anatomically modern humans, beginning with the evolutionary history of primates – in particular genus "Homo" – and leading to the emergence of "Homo sapiens" as a distinct species of the hominid family, the great apes. This process involved the gradual development of traits such as human bipedalism and language. The study of human evolution involves many scientific disciplines, including physical anthropology, primatology, archaeology, paleontology, neurobiology, ethology, linguistics, evolutionary psychology, embryology and genetics.