''Kraglievichia'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

cingulate Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra, is an order of armored New World placental mammals. The armadillos, whose species are split between the families Dasypodidae and Chlamyphoridae, are the only surviving members of the order. Two groups ...

belonging to the family

Pampatheriidae Pampatheriidae ("Pampas beasts") is an extinct family of large cingulates related to armadillos. They first appeared in South America during the mid-Miocene, and '' Holmesina'' and '' Pampatherium'' spread to North America during the Pleistocen ...

. It lived from the Late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

to the Early

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

Description

''Kraglievichia'' looked like an enormous

armadillo Armadillos () are New World placental mammals in the order (biology), order Cingulata. They form part of the superorder Xenarthra, along with the anteaters and sloths. 21 extant species of armadillo have been described, some of which are dis ...

, with body dimensions comparable or larger than the modern

giant armadillo The giant armadillo (''Priodontes maximus''), colloquially ''tatu-canastra'', ''tatou'', ''ocarro'' or ''tatú carreta'', is the largest living species of armadillo (although their extinct relatives, the Glyptodontidae, glyptodonts, were much l ...

; its skull was 18 centimeters long. Though all pampatheres had semi-flexible segmented shells, the structure of the armor forbade them to curl up like modern armadillos can. Currently, ''K. paranense'' is known from several osteoderms, a left femur, and a well-preserved skull without teeth. ''K. carinatum'' is known only from osteoderms. The osteoderms of its carapace are distinctively ornamented with an elevated axial area underlined by two lateral longitudinal depressions.

Classification

The genus ''Kraglievichia'' was established in 1927 by Castellanos for a species of fossil cingulate first described in 1883 by

Florentino Ameghino Florentino Ameghino (born Giovanni Battista Fiorino Giuseppe Ameghino; September 19, 1853 – August 6, 1911) was an Argentine naturalist, paleontologist, anthropologist and zoologist, whose fossil discoveries on the Argentine Pampas, especial ...

as ''Chlamydotherium''. The type species, ''Kraglievichia paranense'', is documented in the fossil records in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

. The second species, ''K. carinatum'', was originally classified as a member of '' Scirrotherium''. However, due to the more shallow longitudinal depressions in osteoderms of ''S. hondaensis'' as compared to those of "''S.''" ''carinatum'', it was reclassified under ''Kraglievichia''. ''Kraglievichia'' was a member of the family

, a clade of cingulates very similar to modern armadillos, and closely related to them. Compared to most other pampatheres, ''Kraglievichia'' is highly derived due to its anatomy and age. Due to their similarities, ''Kraglievichia'' and ''Scirrotherium'' form the sister group to ''Holmesina'', though ''Kraglievichia'' is less closely related to ''Holmesina'' than ''Scirrotherium'' is. The following cladogram is modified from Jiménez-Lara 2020:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q60978079 Prehistoric cingulates Prehistoric placental genera Miocene xenarthrans Miocene genus first appearances Miocene mammals of South America Pliocene mammals of South America Pliocene xenarthrans Pliocene genus extinctions Neogene Argentina Fossils of Argentina Fossils of Uruguay Neogene Uruguay Ituzaingó Formation Fossil taxa described in 1927