New World porcupine
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 North American Porcupine
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Erethizon |
New World porcupine is the common name for any of the large, stocky, largely arboreal rodents comprising the family Erethizontidae, characterized by a spiny covering of sharp, barbed quills. They live in the Americas, with most in South America, but also species in Central and North America (Mertz 2004). Although both the New World porcupines and Old World porcupines (family Hystricidae) belong to the Hystricognathi branch of the vast order Rodentia, and have a similar appearance of a spiny covering, they are quite different, including the fact that all spines in the Old World porcupines lack the barbules characteristic of the Erethizontidae (Atkins 2004). Many New World porcupines are arboreal (adapted to life in trees), whereas the Old World porcupines are usually terrestrial and normally do not climb trees (Atkins 2004; Mertz 2004).
Overview
As rodents, porcupines have incisor teeth that grow continuously throughout their lives and must be kept worn down by gnawing. The incisors have enamel on the outside and exposed dentine on the inside, so they self-sharpen during gnawing. Rodents lack canines and first premolars, which creates a space between their incisors and their grinding teeth.
A porcupine is any of 28 or so species of rodent belonging to the families Erethizontidae or Hystricidae. All defend themselves with sharp spines—actually modified hairs—rather like those of the hedgehogs and the echidnas. However, they are not to be confused with hedgehogs, which are part of the order Erinaceomorpha and more closely related to shrews and moles than they are to the rodents. Likewise, the echidnas, as monotremes, are very distantly related indeed.
Porcupines are all stout animals, with blunt rounded heads, fleshy mobile snouts, and coats of the thick cylindrical or flattened spines ("quills"). The porcupines are the third largest rodent, after the capybara, and beaver, but the species vary in size considerably. Rothschild's porcupine of South America weighs less than a kilogram; the African porcupine can grow to well over 20 kilograms. Most porcupines are about 25-36 inches (60-90 centimeters) long, with a 8-10 inch (20-25 centimeter) long tail. Weighing between 12-35 pounds (5-16 kilograms), they are rounded, large and slow. Porcupines come in various shades of brown, gray, and the unusual white.
The animal's quills or spines take on various forms, depending on the species, but all are modified hairs coated with thick plates of keratin, and are embedded in the skin musculature. Old World porcupines (Hystricidae) have quills embedded in clusters, whereas in New World porcupines (Erethizontidae) single quills are interspersed with bristles, underfur, and hair.
Characteristics
New World porcupines are stout animals, with blunt rounded heads, fleshy mobile snouts, and coats of thick cylindrical or flattened spines ("quills"). The spines are mixed with long soft hairs. They vary in size from the relatively small Prehensile-tailed Porcupines, which are around 30 cm long, and weigh about 900 grams, to the much larger North American Porcupine, which has a body length of 86 cm, and weighs up to 18 kg[1].
They are distinguished from the Old World porcupines in that they have rooted molars, complete collar-bones, entire upper lips, tuberculated soles, no trace of a first front-toe, and four teats.
They are less strictly nocturnal than Old World species in their habits, and some types live entirely in trees while others have dens on the ground. Their long and powerful prehensile tails help them balance when they are in the tree tops. Their diet consists mainly of bark, leaves and conifer needles but can also include roots, stems, berries, fruits, seeds, nuts, grasses and flowers. Some species also eat insects and small reptiles.[2] Their teeth are similar to those of Old World porcupines, with the dental formula:
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Solitary offspring (or, rarely, twins) are born after a gestation period of up to 210 days, depending on the species. The young are born fully developed, with open eyes, and are able to climb trees within a few days of birth[1].
Species
They include three genera, of which the first is represented by the North American Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum), a stout, heavily built animal, with long hairs almost or quite hiding its spines, four front- and five hind-toes, and a short, stumpy tail. It is a native of the greater part of Canada and the United States, wherever there is any remnant of the original forest left.
The tree porcupines (Coendou, Sphiggurus, and Echinoprocta) contain 15 species. They are found throughout tropical South America, with two extending into Mexico. They are of a lighter build than the ground porcupines, with short, close, many-coloured spines, often mixed with hairs, and prehensile tails. The hind-feet have only four toes, owing to the suppression of the first, in place of which they have a fleshy pad on the inner side of the foot; between this pad and the toes, branches and other objects can be firmly grasped as with a hand.
Genus Chaetomys, distinguished by the shape of its skull and the greater complexity of its teeth, contains C. subspinosus, a native of the hottest parts of Brazil. This animal is often considered a member of the Echimyidae on the basis of its premolar.
Species
- Family Erethizontidae
- Subfamily Erethizontinae
- North American Porcupine - Erethizon dorsatum
- Tree porcupines (sometimes united in a single genus Coendou)
- Coendou - prehensile-tailed porcupines
- Coendou bicolor - Bicolor-spined Porcupine
- Coendou nycthemera - Koopman's Porcupine
- Coendou prehensilis - Brazilian Porcupine
- Coendou rothschildi - Rothschild's Porcupine
- Stump-tailed Porcupine - Echinoprocta rufescens
- Sphiggurus - dwarf porcupines
- Sphiggurus ichillus - Long-tailed Hairy Dwarf Porcupine
- Sphiggurus insidiosus - Bahia Hairy Dwarf Porcupine
- Sphiggurus melanurus - Black-tailed Hairy Dwarf Porcupine
- Sphiggurus mexicanus - Mexican Hairy Dwarf Porcupine
- Sphiggurus pruinosus - Frosted Hairy Dwarf Porcupine
- Sphiggurus roosmalenorum - Van Roosmalens's Hairy Dwarf Porcupine
- Sphiggurus spinosus - South American Tree Porcupine
- Sphiggurus vestitus - Brown Hairy Dwarf Porcupine
- Sphiggurus villosus - Orange-spined Hairy Dwarf Porcupine
- Coendou - prehensile-tailed porcupines
- Subfamily Chaetomyinae
- Bristle-spined Porcupine - Chaetomys subspinosus
- Subfamily Erethizontinae
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Woods, Charles (1984). in Macdonald, D.: The Encyclopedia of Mammals. New York: Facts on File, 686-689. ISBN 0-87196-871-1.
- ↑ Macdonald (Ed), Professor David W. (2006). The Encyclopedia of Mammals. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-920608-2.
- Atkins, W. A. 2004. Old World porcupines (Hystricidae). Pages 351 to 364 in B. Grzimek et al., Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition, vol. 16, mammals V. Detroit, MI: Thomson/Gale. ISBN 0787657921.
- Mertz, L. A. 2004. New World porcupines (Erethizontidae). Pages 365 to 375 in B. Grzimek et al., Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition, vol. 16, mammals V. Detroit, MI: Thomson/Gale. ISBN 0787657921.
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Sciuromorpha: †Allomyidae | Aplodontiidae | †Mylagaulidae | †Reithroparamyidae | Sciuridae | Gliridae |
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Castorimorpha: †Eutypomyidae | Castoridae | †Rhizospalacidae | †Eomyidae | †Heliscomyidae | †Mojavemyidae | Heteromyidae | Geomyidae |
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Myomorpha: †Armintomidae | Dipodidae | Zapodidae | †Anomalomyidae | †Simimyidae | Platacanthomyidae | Spalacidae | Calomyscidae | Nesomyidae | Cricetidae | Muridae |
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Anomaluromorpha: Anomaluridae | †Parapedetidae | Pedetidae |
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Hystricomorpha: †Tamquammyidae | Ctenodactylidae | Diatomyidae | †Yuomyidae | †Chapattimyidae | †Tsaganomyidae | †"Baluchimyinae" | †Bathyergoididae | Bathyergidae | Hystricidae | †Myophiomyidae | †Diamantomyidae | †Phiomyidae | †Kenyamyidae | Petromuridae | Thryonomyidae | Erethizontidae | Chinchillidae | Dinomyidae | Caviidae | Dasyproctidae | †Eocardiidae | Cuniculidae | Ctenomyidae | Octodontidae | †Neoepiblemidae | Abrocomidae | Echimyidae | Myocastoridae | Capromyidae | †Heptaxodontidae |
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Prehistoric rodents (incertae sedis): †Eurymylidae | †Cocomyidae | †Alagomyidae | †Ivanantoniidae | †Laredomyidae | †Ischyromyidae | †Theridomyidae | †Protoptychidae | †Zegdoumyidae | †Sciuravidae | †Cylindrodontidae |
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† indicates extinct taxa |
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