| Peltephilids | |
|---|---|
| |
| Skull of Peltephilus | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Placentalia |
| Superorder: | Xenarthra |
| Order: | Cingulata |
| Family: | †Peltephilidae Ameghino, 1894 |
| Type species | |
| †Peltephilus strepens Ameghino, 1887
| |
| Genera | |
Peltephilidae (meaning "armor-liking") is a family of South American cingulates (armadillos) that lived for over 40 million years, but peaked in diversity towards the end of the Oligocene and beginning of the Miocene in what is now Argentina. They were exclusive to South America due to its geographic isolation at the time, one of many of the continent's strange endemic families. Peltephilids are one of the earliest known cingulates, diverging from the rest of Cingulata in the Early Eocene.