Atherurus

The brush-tailed porcupines are a genus, Atherurus, of Old World porcupines found in Asia and Africa.

Atherurus

Ryan Somma · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
brush-tailed porcupinePBDB
Sits inside
HystricidaePBDB
Diet
herbivore, frugivorePBDB, for Hystricidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Hystricidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 3.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.6 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 1 of 10 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 10 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 9 of 10 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 10 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.7–9.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.3–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.5–8.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.1–7.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.7–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–6.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.1–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.4–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.8–2.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.4–2.0 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.0–1.6 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.6–1.2 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.2–809 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences809 ka–404 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences404 ka–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.6 Mya129 ka12.1 Mya0 Mya

10 occurrences of Atherurus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

10 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Adu-Asa — 10.32°N, 40.25°E

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The named rock units Atherurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Atherurus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Atherurus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

249 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Atherurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

7 references

Each of the 10 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Atherurus

Credit
Ryan Somma
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Atherurus macrourus · MVZ:Mamm:MVZ:Mamm:186560

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itHystricidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cuvier 1829