I'm not reproducing them here for copyright reasons, but while he worked assiduously with paleontologists to make his illustrations (which appeared most famously in Dr. Josef Augusta's very influential Prehistoric Animals (1956), where Burian got co-credit on the cover), his Dunk is a little odd to me. It's the most smooth and streamlined Dunk I've ever seen, tapering perfectly like a nuclear submarine to an elongated teardrop.
That muscle and skin made the armor almost invisible is certainly possible, but the eel-like tail isn't very substantive, and I am certain the pectoral fins are too small: they needed to precisely control a ton of head/armor stretching several feet ahead of them. All that said, the illustrations are wonderful, bringing to life the great predator, its relatives, and its surroundings: I'm looking for a copy of Prehistoric Animals right now.
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https://weather.com/science/nature/video/scientists-mull-mystery-of-tunnels
Now that's downright fascinating.
How large would the armadillo be? Do they dig tunnels the same size as their girth?
There have been armadillo's the size of cars but it has been thought unlikely that these giant forms lived in burrows. For example, the giant wombat called a Diprotodon (in Australia). I think they did live in burrows.
this shows the size:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o3fI2ZlYJI
I do not think they were dug by giant ground sloths.
According to one video, Frank concluded that the smoothness of the walls of some burrows is due to the friction from the fur. So some of these equaled the girth.
Laurence, Thanks for all the information. We may find out the explanation is even weirder, for all we know.
It is good to hear again how open you are to the unusual. I really like your use of the word weird in a positive sense. What I would like to know is how sloths could have been energetic enough to survive on the ground and even dig tunnels. I think they lived in trees bigger than we have today. What evidence is there of such an energetic physiology?
And the answer, is, I don't know. But if they are not geologic, and he makes an argument for that, then they have to be biological. Reminds me of Heuvelmans and his mincohao (SP?)
Certainly we do not know but I think they must be giant burrowing animals known from the Quaternary. That I guess means giant armadillos would be the most likely. There have been armadillos the size of cars in the fossil record. But if it is armadillos, how can the fur be accounted for?
Laurence,
I don't know. Count me baffled on that mystery for now.
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