This is a Glyptodon, an extinct gant relative of the modern armadillo. These giants were the most heavily armoured of all the ice age mammals. Their shells were made up of small plates of bone that were fused together. Although they could not roll up into a ball like a modern armadillo, they only had to tuck their armoured heads down into their shell to be well protected from hungry predators.
These armoured giants lived inthe grassland regions of South America. They were predators and had simple peg like teeth with a hard coating that could deal with tough vegetation. They died out about 10,000 years ago.
From me:
Scary monster! This one is about 4 feet tall and looks quite ferocious.
I really like this photo. I caught the light through the windows at the Natural Histor Museum as it just hit this display in the main hall. !
Shot through glass. Removed a couple of minor glare marks with clone in the black above the animal. Cropped to square, tiny touches to saturation and colour balance (accidentally left camera WB on tungsten). Lots of time spent trying to get sharpening right (so much detail - better on the full size version!).
File Name
IMG_7888.JPG
Camera Model
Canon EOS 20D
Shooting Date/Time
18/06/2005 16:03:18
Shooting Mode
Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed )
1/60
Av( Aperture Value )
4.5
Metering Mode
Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation
-1 1/3
ISO Speed
400
Lens
17.0 - 85.0 mm
Focal Length
24.0 mm
Image Size
3504x2336
Image Quality
Fine
Flash
Off
White Balance Mode
Tungsten
AF Mode
One-Shot AF
Parameters Settings
Contrast Standard
Sharpness Standard
Color saturation Standard
Color tone 0
Color Space
sRGB
Noise Reduction
Off
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This is very well photographed but if I may suggest, first the subject is great and what you want to do is present it in its darkest mood. This means spreading some some soil and a few leaves and stones in place of the neat blue surface. Then using the light to hide most of the form that displays the skeletal. Basically a high contrast image. Adding some red light would then make it almost demonic and outside of what we normally see. You get a six for the good effort as is.
The sidelighting gives this.... ummm....... thing.... nice dimension. It would be good if the support stucture under the belly wasn't so visible, and it would be even better if you had had the chance to make the floor look "natural" somehow.
Well spotted monster!
Great idea! The light is a bit harsh on the shell and a bit overexposed for me, but, the detail is incredible, and overall it's a winner! One of my favorites!
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