Morten St George Theory

[ChenZheChina]

For the "armadillo" there is a better candidate in the Old World, the pangolin. An armadillo is defined by its bands (in Dutch it is even called gordeldier, "band-animal") while the VM critter has scales, like the pangolin.

At least, from the images Koen uploaded, it seems that pangolin is a better candidate than armadillo.

And, yes, pangolin was once very common in the Old World. In China, we had a long history of eating pangolin. But it is now endangered, so cannot be eaten any more.

I could even remember when I learned the word armadillo for the first time, and thought, “Wow, isn’t this a pangolin?”