In a paper published this week in the journal Current Biology, paleontologists described functionally important features of the skeleton of the extinct porcupine Erethizon poyeri.
There s a longstanding debate simmering among biologists who study porcupines. There are 16 porcupine species in Central and South America, but only one in the United States and Canada. DNA evidence suggests North America s sole porcupine belongs to a group that originated 10 million years ago, but fossils seem to tell a different story. Some paleontologists think they may have evolved just 2.5 million years ago, at the beginning of the ice ages.
An exceptionally rare fossilized porcupine skeleton discovered in Florida has allowed researchers to trace the evolutionary history for one of North America s rarest mammals.
The extinction of the dinosaurs left an ecological hole that was quickly filled by mammals, which rapidly developed larger bodies. Now it seems this evolutionary growth spurt was a result of living life in fast forward