Hystricidae

The Old World porcupines, or Hystricidae, are large terrestrial rodents, distinguished by the spiny covering from which they take their name. They range over Southern Europe (Italy) and the Levant, most of Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia as far east as Flores. Although both the Old World and New World porcupine families belong to the infraorder Hystricognathi of the vast order Rodentia, they are quite different and are not particularly closely related.

Hystricidae

Liné1 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
porcupinePBDB
Sits inside
HystricognathiPBDB
Diet
herbivore, frugivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 11.63 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 37 of 280 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 65 of 280 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 149 of 280 occurrencesPleistocene16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–10 Mya — about 1 occurrence10–9.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.9–9.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.3–8.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.8–8.2 Mya — about 4 occurrences8.2–7.7 Mya — about 4 occurrences7.7–7.1 Mya — about 4 occurrences7.1–6.6 Mya — about 5 occurrences6.6–6.0 Mya — about 5 occurrences6.0–5.5 Mya — about 5 occurrences5.5–4.9 Mya — about 8 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 9 occurrences4.4–3.8 Mya — about 9 occurrences3.8–3.3 Mya — about 15 occurrences3.3–2.7 Mya — about 20 occurrences2.7–2.2 Mya — about 24 occurrences2.2–1.6 Mya — about 27 occurrences1.6–1.1 Mya — about 27 occurrences1.1–549 ka Mya — about 30 occurrences549 ka–0 Mya — about 76 occurrences11.63 Mya11.7 ka16.5 Mya0 Mya

280 occurrences of Hystricidae on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

280 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

49 formations

Vogel River Series — 3.23°S, 35.23°EVogel River Series — 3.26°S, 35.18°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°EKoobi Fora — 4.18°N, 36.42°EKoobi Fora — 4.08°N, 36.35°EKoobi Fora — 4.13°N, 36.38°EMakapansgat — 24.20°S, 28.95°ESwartkrans — 26.02°S, 27.72°ENachukui — 4.25°N, 35.79°ENachukui — 3.08°N, 35.83°ENachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EHadar — 11.12°N, 40.58°ELukeino — 0.50°N, 35.67°ENubia — 22.88°N, 30.64°ENubia — 22.50°N, 30.75°EOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.35°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 35.37°EVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EChemeron — 0.67°N, 35.83°ESterkfontein — 26.02°S, 27.73°ENubia — 16.25°N, 33.75°EAdu-Asa — 10.32°N, 40.25°EKanapoi — 2.37°N, 36.08°EKanapoi — 2.32°N, 36.07°EWehaietu — 10.90°N, 40.48°EMatabaietu — 10.55°N, 40.58°EShungura — 5.06°N, 36.03°EUSNO — 5.35°N, 36.17°EKromdraai — 26.00°S, 27.75°EBaza — 37.72°N, 2.47°W'Ubeidiya — 32.68°N, 35.57°EPikermi — 38.00°N, 23.95°EIli — 43.93°N, 79.25°E

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The named rock units Hystricidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 25 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 169 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Hystricidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Hystricidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,144 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 241 sites for Hystricidae, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

173 references

Each of the 280 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 161 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Hystricidae

Credit
Liné1
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Hystricidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itHystricognathi through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fischer de Waldheim 1817