New World porcupine

plural New World porcupines

1. 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.

   New World porcupines have some arboreal adaptations that are lacking in their more terrestrial Old World counterparts.

   2011, Terry A. Vaughan, James M. Ryan, Mammalogy, page 227

   2 more examples

   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.

   2004, Fred Cooke, editor, The Encyclopedia of Animals: A Complete Visual Guide, page 232

   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

   2009, Uldis Roze, The North American Porcupine, page 206

   Synonyms: erethizontid