New World porcupine

English

A New World porcupine, Erethizon dorsatum

Noun

New World porcupine (plural New World porcupines)

Any of the large, arboreal, spiny-furred rodents of the family Erethizontidae, native to forests and wooded regions of North America and northern South America.
- 2004, Fred Cooke (editor), The Encyclopedia of Animals: A Complete Visual Guide‎, page 232:
  New World porcupines, found in both North and South America, are arboreal and climb trees with agility, aided in some species by a prehensile tail.
- 2009, Uldis Roze, The North American Porcupine‎, page 206:
  The bizarre structure, shared with the New World porcupines, so impressed Stuart Landry that he argued for a common origin for the New World and Old World hystricomorphs long before the mainstream of biologists felt ready to do so (Pocock 1922; Dathe 1937; Landry 1957
- 2011, Terry A. Vaughan, James M. Ryan, Mammalogy, page 227,
  New World porcupines have some arboreal adaptations that are lacking in their more terrestrial Old World counterparts.

Synonyms

(any species of family Erethizontidae): erethizontid

Coordinate terms

Old World porcupine

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