Armadillos - continued...

In fact, Newmann and Patterson had failed to find the earliest stages. In a paper published in 1910, they mentioned the problem of the time of transportation of animals from the field to the lab in Austin:

During the breeding season hunters employed to collect material for us covered a wide range of territory in south-central Texas. These men were frequently obliged to haul the living animals through rough country for distances of fifty miles or more in order to reach an express office whence they could be shipped to our laboratories. As a rule a number of days elapsed between the capture of the annuals and their arrival in Austin. This delay would serve in part to explain our ill success in securing the earliest embryonic stages. In order to obtain a complete series we believe it will be necessary either to breed the animals in captivity or to accompany the hunters on their expeditions so as to lose no time in examining freshly fertilize females. Although we fully expect to secure the earliest stages in the course of time it seems inadvisable for us to postpone the publication of the results thus far obtained... (Newman and Patterson 1910, p. 363-364).

A vesticle of the nine-banded armadillo cut open along the mid-ventral line.

In the following years, they changed their strategy for obtaining specimens for study. There were several problems for the scientific stabilization of these animals in the laboratory because of the change of armadillo’s habits and a poor survival-rate in captivity. Newman recognised that armadillo breeding was not at present practicable and therefore, he had to go to the field with local hunters. At certain localities of Texas, Newman found a flourishing industry in which many thousands of armadillos were slaughtered annually for their armour. Thanks to the hunters and dealers of "armadillo basket", he had no difficulty in obtaining hundreds of pregnant females (Newman 1913).