Do armadillos really always give birth to 4 identical young?
Yes and no. The nine-banded armadillo nearly always gives birth to four identical young, just as humans nearly always give birth to one child at a time. However, just as people sometimes give birth to twins, armadillos will occasionally bear litters of three or five young. Despite the number, the young are always identical. They form from the same egg, share the same placenta during development, and are all the same sex. This regular production of genetically identical young makes armadillos valuable to medical researchers. (Other types of armadillo, like the giant or six-banded armadillos, give birth to varying numbers of young.
