Dr. Tim Bean

Yeah, all of those. And it's really confusing. So there's two families, capital F, of porcupines. There's the Hystricidae, which are the African Eurasian porcupines, and there's like 11 species of those. And then totally separately is the family of North and South American porcupines, Eurythizontidae, where there's about 20 species of those.

Yeah, all of those. And it's really confusing. So there's two families, capital F, of porcupines. There's the Hystricidae, which are the African Eurasian porcupines, and there's like 11 species of those. And then totally separately is the family of North and South American porcupines, Eurythizontidae, where there's about 20 species of those.

And it's, man, I've been like looking the past week or two because I always tell people that those two families, the like African and Eurasian porcupines and the North and South Americans evolved separately and that they evolved quills independently from each other.

And it's, man, I've been like looking the past week or two because I always tell people that those two families, the like African and Eurasian porcupines and the North and South Americans evolved separately and that they evolved quills independently from each other.

And it's, man, I've been like looking the past week or two because I always tell people that those two families, the like African and Eurasian porcupines and the North and South Americans evolved separately and that they evolved quills independently from each other.

And like nobody seems to want to really go on record and say whether that's true or not or whether the like, you know, so they separated like 10 to 20 million years ago And I think we just don't really know whether that ancient rodent ancestor of the two groups had some form of quill and then they split and they continue to have quills or if they evolved independently.

And like nobody seems to want to really go on record and say whether that's true or not or whether the like, you know, so they separated like 10 to 20 million years ago And I think we just don't really know whether that ancient rodent ancestor of the two groups had some form of quill and then they split and they continue to have quills or if they evolved independently.

And like nobody seems to want to really go on record and say whether that's true or not or whether the like, you know, so they separated like 10 to 20 million years ago And I think we just don't really know whether that ancient rodent ancestor of the two groups had some form of quill and then they split and they continue to have quills or if they evolved independently.

But yeah, so around the world, there's like 30 species of porcupines, but they're very different. The family of African and Eurasian porcupines are much bigger. They're ground dwelling. The quills are way longer. They're like a foot long. And I think they're more aggressive. Like a lot of the videos of porcupine attacking a leopard, those are generally African porcupines, Eurasian porcupines.

But yeah, so around the world, there's like 30 species of porcupines, but they're very different. The family of African and Eurasian porcupines are much bigger. They're ground dwelling. The quills are way longer. They're like a foot long. And I think they're more aggressive. Like a lot of the videos of porcupine attacking a leopard, those are generally African porcupines, Eurasian porcupines.

But yeah, so around the world, there's like 30 species of porcupines, but they're very different. The family of African and Eurasian porcupines are much bigger. They're ground dwelling. The quills are way longer. They're like a foot long. And I think they're more aggressive. Like a lot of the videos of porcupine attacking a leopard, those are generally African porcupines, Eurasian porcupines.

And then the North and South American porcupines are more arboreal. They spend a lot of time in trees, eating leaves, much shorter quills.

And then the North and South American porcupines are more arboreal. They spend a lot of time in trees, eating leaves, much shorter quills.

And then the North and South American porcupines are more arboreal. They spend a lot of time in trees, eating leaves, much shorter quills.

Yeah, that's possible. That definitely is possible, right? The defense stuff is much more important if you're on the ground and you're out digging around for roots and stuff. The other part of it is, at least for North American porcupines, they fall out of trees a lot. So they're not super coordinated and they'll quill themselves. And so the, yeah.

Yeah, that's possible. That definitely is possible, right? The defense stuff is much more important if you're on the ground and you're out digging around for roots and stuff. The other part of it is, at least for North American porcupines, they fall out of trees a lot. So they're not super coordinated and they'll quill themselves. And so the, yeah.

Yeah, that's possible. That definitely is possible, right? The defense stuff is much more important if you're on the ground and you're out digging around for roots and stuff. The other part of it is, at least for North American porcupines, they fall out of trees a lot. So they're not super coordinated and they'll quill themselves. And so the, yeah.

And so I think there's probably some benefit to having shorter quills in that case. Like it's sort of breaking a bunch off when you fall on the ground, like having shorter ones that are at least somewhat protected by the outer guard hairs is probably better. Yeah.

And so I think there's probably some benefit to having shorter quills in that case. Like it's sort of breaking a bunch off when you fall on the ground, like having shorter ones that are at least somewhat protected by the outer guard hairs is probably better. Yeah.

And so I think there's probably some benefit to having shorter quills in that case. Like it's sort of breaking a bunch off when you fall on the ground, like having shorter ones that are at least somewhat protected by the outer guard hairs is probably better. Yeah.