New World porcupine

New World porcupines
Temporal range: Oligocene-Recent
~28.4–0 Ma
North American porcupine, (Erethizon dorsatum)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Infraorder: Hystricognathi
Parvorder: Caviomorpha
Superfamily: Erethizontoidea
Family: Erethizontidae
Bonaparte 1845
Type genus
Erethizon
F. Cuvier, 1823
Genera

The New World porcupines, family Erethizontidae, are large arboreal rodents, distinguished by their spiny coverings from which they take their name. They inhabit forests and wooded regions across North America, and into northern South America. Although both the New World and Old World porcupine families belong to the Hystricognathi branch of the vast order Rodentia, they are quite different and are not closely related.