Dr. Ted Stankowich

maybe it wouldn't be favored as much.

But if you have one big shot at reproduction and there's not a good chance of surviving year to year, then helping this year's brood survive would certainly be a smart thing to do.

As a youngest son, I appreciate that.

I would not like to apologize.

Yes, in the field, yeah, in Australia.

I mean, it's thick in skin.

Anything that sort of goes into a burrow to plug up a hole, having an armored part of your body would be super helpful.

My favorite example of an armored butt is, as though there's lots of examples of an armored butt.

My favorite example of an armored butt is the pink fairy armadillo.

They're one of the smallest armadillo species.

Their only armor is a strip of armor along its back that's pink and a plate over the butt that is pink as well.

And very small.

You can't imagine how that armor would really help them.

However, the plate over the rear end is much thicker.

and harder to get through, and they will go into burrows, and that is the plug that helps to protect them from predators.

In fact, the armor on the back is not very well hardened at all.

It's much more leathery.

It doesn't show up well on CT scans, but the plate over the rump certainly does.

So having armor on your rump is great for burrowing animals because it helps to sort of seal things up if a predator is trying to come down a hole to go after you.

Exactly, yeah.