![]() The porcupine possesses antibiotics in its skin which may help prevent infection when a porcupine falls out of a tree and is stuck with its own quills upon hitting the ground. Weight in adult females can average some 7 kg (15 lb) while 5 wild-caught males averaged 10.67 kg (23.5 lb). The hind foot length is 7.5 to 9.1 cm (3.0 to 3.6 in). This species is the largest of the New World porcupines and is the second largest North American rodent, after the American beaver. They have a stocky body, a small face, short legs, and a short, thick tail. Porcupines are usually dark brown or black in color, with white highlights. Juvenile male spends its first winters with its mother bruneri can be found in the midwest from Arkansas to Montana. couesi is the most southern ranging from northern Mexico to Colorado. picinum occupies a small range in northeastern Quebec and Labrador. dorsatum, which ranges from Nova Scotia to Alberta and from Virginia to the Yukon. They are subdivided by different ranges across North America. dorsatum is from the Pleistocene era found along the Arroyo del Cedazo near Aguascalientes, Mexico. ![]() They are thought to have migrated from Africa, ancestors of the Old World porcupines or Hystricidae or they originated based on a migration of the North American Paramyidae. South American hystricomorphs first appeared in the Lower Oligocene period. Some fossils, such as species from the family Paramyidae, show resemblance to the porcupine, but they are so primitive and generalized that they could be ancestors to all later rodents. No known fossils are attributed to hystricomorphs prior to the late Tertiary period. Other hystricomorphs also migrated, but Erethizon was the only one to survive north of Mexico. Erethizon appeared in North America shortly after the two continents joined together in the later Tertiary period. The North American porcupine migrated from South America, where all New World porcupines or hystricomorphs evolved. Native American terms for it include the Lakota name pahin meaning quill, the Ho-Chunk name waxąhį, and the Chipewyan name ts'l. The porcupine's scientific name, Erethizon dorsatum, can be loosely translated as "the animal with the irritating back". It is also referred to as the Canadian porcupine or common porcupine. Other colloquial names for the animal include quill pig. ![]() Its roots derive from the Latin words porcus or pig and spina meaning thorns. The word "porcupine" comes from the middle or old French word porcespin, which means 'thorn pig'. The porcupine is a caviomorph rodent whose ancestors crossed the Atlantic from Africa to Brazil 30 million years ago, and then migrated to North America during the Great American Interchange after the Isthmus of Panama rose 3 million years ago. It is the second largest rodent in North America, after the North American beaver ( Castor canadensis). The North American porcupine ( Erethizon dorsatum), also known as the Canadian porcupine, is a large quill-covered rodent in the New World porcupine family.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |