Hystrix primigenia is an extinct species of Old World porcupine that lived during the Late Miocene and Pliocene. Fossils of this species were recovered mainly from southern Europe, from Spain to Turkey and North Africa as well. The earliest fossils were found in Greece and the Balkan peninsula.[2]
| Hystrix primigenia | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Hystricidae |
| Genus: | Hystrix |
| Species: | †H. primigenia
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| Binomial name | |
| †Hystrix primigenia (Wagner, 1848)[1]
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| Synonyms | |
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Lamprodon primigenius | |
Hystrix primigenia was much larger than living porcupines, perhaps as much as twice the size of the largest living species. It probably descended from a smaller, more primitive species known as Hystrix suevica.[3] Hystrix primigenia seems to have been adapted to warm dry climate, and inhabited areas rich in forests and open woodland environments.[2]
References
edit- ^ "Hystrix primigenia". Fossilworks. Archived from the original on 2021-12-12. Retrieved 2021-12-17.
- ^ a b Fistani, A.B.; Pavlakis, P.P.; Symeonidis, N. (1996). "First discovery of Hystrix primigenia Wagner from the Late Miocene to Early Pliocene deposits of Shahinova, Berat, South-West Albania". Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien. 98A: 155–172. JSTOR 41701959.
- ^ Montoya, Plinio (1993). "The porcupine Hystrix suevica Schlosser, 1884 from the Lower Turolian of Crevillente 2 (Spain)". Scripta Geol. 103: 135–149.
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