...and obviously has a brown speckled spine...

Sadly, it is rarely seen alive in its native habitat, since, like all armadillos, when trying to cross a road, its reflexive defense mechanism when feeling threatened is to jump straight up in the air; hence often getting hit by the undercarrage of fast moving vehicles...

when feeling threatened is to jump straight up in the air; hence often getting hit by the undercarrage of fast moving vehicles...[/quote]

ouch ,how ever, over millania,it has developed a hard shell covering that shoots out on impact, there by saving the underside of the creature.

Well, armadillos do have hard shells, except for the soft shelled pink polka-dotted Lebanese armadillo, that is.

if you crossed a soft shelled pink polka-dotted Lebanese Armadillo (SSPPLA) with a Brown speckle-spined Florida highlands Armadillo (BSSFHA) what would you get ??

roxanna wrote:if you crossed a soft shelled pink polka-dotted Lebanese Armadillo (SSPPLA) with a Brown speckle-spined Florida highlands Armadillo (BSSFHA) what would you get ??

Why, you'd get The Creature from the Black Lagoon, of course!

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Y'all wanna pass me that koolaid? [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Hey, Tater...?
You have been to Florida; where are the 'Highlands' ? [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
I can't locate them on any map.

Ja'aj, in all seriousness, any land that's not alluvial, lowlands, swamp or marsh, or prairie, is technically considered highlands (think uplands, any area which is higher and at least slightly better drained than the predominant surrounding land). In Florida, this is confined mostly to parts of the panhandle, as well as the "spine" of the peninsula, which is comprised mainly of ancient sand dunes running down the center of the peninsula, a strip of land that varies in width from maybe 10 to 50 miles in width, and from approximately Lake City (east of Tallahassee) through Lake Okeechobee (the only lake visible on Florida's license plate), and includes the cities of Gainesville, Ocala, Leesburg, Sanford, Winter Park, Orlando, and Lakeland. It is about 75 to 100 feet higher than the surrounding lowlands, on average. Whereas the average elevation of most of the peninsula is around 65 feet above mean sea level or less, the elevation of the spine is about 150 to 175 feet, give or take. The highest point in Florida is along this stretch, below Orlando; if my memory serves correctly, is something like 273 ft. above sea level. This area includes many of Florida's 22 first magnitude artesian springs, such as Alexander Springs, which result from the karst topography, comprised largely of limestone formations at or near the surface. Limestone is readily dissolved by carbonic acid, which is typically found in rainwater, as well as water that has a lot of leaves and other organic matter. Hence, many caverns and caves are formed. The springs are essentially caverns and caves that are partially submerged at or very close to the surface; they are basically areas where the groundwater is at the surface rather than underground. There is even a river in North Central Florida the Santa Fe (a tributary of the Suwannee) that flows underground for a number of miles, in the vicinity of High Springs, a small town NW of Gainesville which is famous for the surrounding springs, especially Ginnie Springs, a world renowned prime location for scuba divers and cave diving.
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Ginnie Springs, courtesy of their website:

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and there was me ,thinking the highlands were a joke, visions of alpine peaks in the everglades !! ..why not? after all it is the home of SSPPLA..
the springs look beautiful,can't help but wonder what goes on under the water,underneath the enlargements it states "report this as offensive/adult content"

Thanks, Tater! WOW!
Roxanna,
ME TOO! I really thought that at least 1/3 of Florida was right
at sea level (which would make 2/3rds of it 'highlands' - *duh*)
and so 'highlands' was meant to be humorous.
(This is why no one pays me to think.)