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Old World Porcupines
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.
3 branches of this family, most-observed first · about 11 known species
Crested Porcupines and Allies
genusHystrix
Brush-tailed Porcupines
genusAtherurus
Long-tailed Porcupines
genusTrichys
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Hystricidae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 44167.