[6] Description The Smutsia species can be easily distinguished due to the layer of protective horny scales.

They have a long streamlined body, its small coned shaped head, and thick tails that are covered with overlapping scales that resemble artichoke leaves.

The setting in which this occurs is an underground shelter until the babies reach 2 to 4 weeks then they are carried outside.

British naturalist John Edward Gray named Smutsia for South African naturalist Johannes Smuts (1808–1869),[7][8] the first South African to write a treatise on mammals in 1832 (in which he described the species Manis temminckii).

Phylogenetic position of genus Smutsia within family Manidae[10][11][12][1] †Palaeanodonta †Euromanis †Pholidota sp.