Table of Contents
- 1 What did porcupines evolve from?
- 2 Do porcupines and hedgehogs have a common ancestor?
- 3 What is the difference between hedgehog and porcupine?
- 4 How are hedgehogs and porcupines similar?
- 5 What are porcupines related to?
- 6 How are hedgehogs and porcupines alike?
- 7 Are all porcupine quills the same?
- 8 Are hedgehogs related to porcupines?
What did porcupines evolve from?
I found out that porcupines evolved from hedgehogs. Hedgehogs have been around for more than 15 million years. The hedgehog’s DNA has not changed much in that time. Porcupine’s DNA is not as old as the hedgehog’s so they had to come from the hedgehogs.
Do porcupines and hedgehogs have a common ancestor?
Though they may look similar to each other, hedgehogs and porcupines are not at all related.
What animal did we all evolve from?
Humans are one type of several living species of great apes. Humans evolved alongside orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. All of these share a common ancestor before about 7 million years ago. Learn more about apes.
What family is the porcupine in?
Erethizontidae family
New World porcupines make up the Erethizontidae family, which comprises four genera and 12 species. There are 11 species, in three genera, of Old World porcupines in the Hystricidae family.
What is the difference between hedgehog and porcupine?
What is the difference between a hedgehog and a porcupine? Hedgehogs are smaller in size than porcupines in both length and weight. Secondly, while porcupines are rodents, hedgehogs are not categorized as rodents. Porcupines have more quills than a hedgehog and a porcupine’s quills are longer.
How are hedgehogs and porcupines similar?
The porcupine and hedgehog are prickly mammals. They are often confused because they both have sharp, needle-like quills on their body. However, that’s about the only similarity between the two animals. Porcupines and hedgehogs differ in size, defensive behavior, diet and country of habitation.
How are porcupines different from hedgehogs and echidnas?
Porcupines have longer quills than hedgehogs. Some species have 2-3 inch quills while an African species has quills almost a foot long. Porcupine quills easily fall off. Hedgehogs have about 5,000 spines, whereas porcupines have about 30,000.
How are all species related?
Overwhelming evidence shows us that all species are related–that is, that they are all descended from a common ancestor. Today, we realize that most such resemblances–in both physical structure and embryonic development–are expressions of shared DNA, the direct outcome of a common ancestry.
The term covers two families of animals: the Old World porcupines of family Hystricidae, and the New World porcupines of family Erethizontidae….
| Porcupine | |
|---|---|
| Infraorder: | Hystricognathi |
| Groups included | |
| Hystricidae (Old World porcupines) Erethizontidae (New World porcupines) |
How are hedgehogs and porcupines alike?
How many species of porcupines are there?
There are, in total, 27 species of porcupine belonging to the families, Erethizontidae or Hystricidae. Porcupines (like monkeys) are divided into New World (Erethizontidae) and Old World (Hystricidae) porcupines and are quite different from each other and are not closely related.
How do porcupines protect themselves from predators?
Porcupines are rodents with an interesting way to protect themselves from predators. They wear a coat of sharp quills all over their body. There are two different families of porcupines. There is hystricidae, or Old World Porcupines, and Erethizontidae, the New World Porcupines.
Are all porcupine quills the same?
The Porcupine quills are not the same on every species. All Porcupine quills are actually modified hairs that are coated with thick plates of keratin and are embedded in the musculature of the skin. Old World Porcupines have cluster quills and the single quills of New World Porcupines are interspersed with hair, under fur and bristles.
Well, as they are both mammals, they are somewhat related, but hedgehogs are not close relatives of porcupines, not closer than we humans are (in fact, of the three, we are more closely related to porcupines than hedgehogs are, but I digress).