Paraguaian hairy dwarf porcupine | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Rodentia |
Family: | Erethizontidae |
Genus: | Coendou |
Species: | C. spinosus
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Binomial name | |
Coendou spinosus (F. Cuvier, 1822)
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The Paraguaian hairy dwarf porcupine (Coendou spinosus) is a porcupine species from the family Erethizontidae.[2] It is found in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
They have a short tail and gray brown quills and feed on fruits, ant pupae, vegetables and roots.
This species was formerly sometimes assigned to Sphiggurus,[2] a genus no longer recognized since genetic studies showed it to be polyphyletic.[3] The population formerly recognized as the orange-spined hairy dwarf porcupine (Sphiggurus villosus)[4] has been reclassified to this species.[1] Its closest relatives are the bicolored-spined porcupine (Coendou bicolor) and the black dwarf porcupine (Coendou nycthemera).[3]