Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two families of animals: the Old World porcupines of the family Hystricidae , and the New World porcupines of the family Erethizontidae .

2024年12月14日 · Evolution and classification. Studies suggest that porcupines inhabited several parts of the Old World by the Miocene Epoch (23 million to 5.3 million years ago), with the oldest known porcupines residing in southern Europe.

2024年5月28日 · DNA evidence suggests North America’s sole porcupine belongs to a group that originated 10 million years ago, but fossils seem to tell a different story. Some paleontologists think they may have evolved just 2.5 million years ago, at the beginning of the ice ages.

2024年6月8日 · New findings from a complete porcupine skeleton in Florida reveal a much earlier origin for North American porcupines, predating the Isthmus of Panama, and suggest a mixed evolutionary lineage with traits of both North and South American species.

2024年5月30日 · In a remarkable breakthrough, a rare discovery in Florida has shed new light on the evolutionary timeline of North America’s solitary porcupine species. A nearly complete porcupine skeleton unearthed by researchers offers vital clues to a long-standing debate among biologists and paleontologists regarding the origin of these spiny rodents.

The North American porcupine migrated from South America, where all New World porcupines or hystricomorphs evolved. Erethizon appeared in North America shortly after the two continents joined together in the later Tertiary period.

2024年5月29日 · Scientists are getting closer to solving a long-running mystery about the evolutionary history of North American porcupines, all thanks to a new discovery in Florida.

2024年9月30日 · A rare, nearly complete fossil of an extinct North American porcupine helped me and my colleagues solve a decades-long debate about how the modern North American porcupine evolved from its ancestors. Published in Current Biology, our paper argues that North American porcupine ancestors may well date back 10 million years, but they wouldn’t be ...

2024年5月28日 · An exceptionally rare fossilized porcupine skeleton discovered in Florida has allowed researchers to trace the evolutionary history for one of North America's rarest mammals.

2021年1月6日 · There are 30 species of porcupine divided between two families: Hystricidae (Old World porcupines) and Erethizontidae (New World porcupines). The two porcupine families are not closely related. The similarities in their appearance are due to convergent evolution (the process in which unrelated species develop similar characteristics ...