Acanthion

Abstract: Few fossil remains of rodents have been collected in Java until now, and they have received little attention. In the reports published during his paleontological researches in Java, Dubois twice records finds of Hystrix remains, viz., at Pati-Ajam in Japara (Anonymus, 1891, p. 12/13), and in the region between Bangle and Djeroek (Anonymus, 1893, p. 12). In a subsequent paper (Dubois, 1907, p. 454) we find mention of the presence of porcupines in the fossil fauna of Java, but in his review of the latter fauna Dubois (1908) bestows no words upon these rodents. The Selenka Expedition to Trinil secured one tooth, which was figured by Stremme (1911, p. 83, pl. XVI fig. 5) as a right M2 of a small species of Hystrix. Finally a tooth of Hystrix from Sangiran II was made mention of by Von Koenigswald (1934, p. 193). Among the material from prehistoric caves in the Padang Highlands, in Central Sumatra, which were explored by Dubois in the years 1888 to 1890 (Anonymus, 1889-90) teeth of porcupines are prevalent, and almost every tooth or bone in the Sumatran collection bears evidence of the gnawing habits of these animals. We possess hundreds of isolated porcupine teeth, but also a number of rami with the teeth in situ, and a few bones referable to the same animals. The recent porcupine of Java is regarded by modern authors as a subspecies of Acanthion brachyurus (L.) from the Malay Peninsula. The Sumatran form of Acanthion is intermediate in size, as in geographical position, between A. b. brachyurus (L.) and A. b. javanicum Cuvier; it is named Acanthion brachyurus longicaudum (Marsden) in the present paper.

Abstract: Rare Late Pleistocene porcupine remains of Hystrix (Atherurus) brachyura Linnaeus 1758 are described from the Fuchsluken Cave, a small gypsum karst cavity at the Rote Berg on the Giebelstein near Saalfeld (Thuringia, Central Germany). The cave was used during the Eemian and mainly Early Weichselian (around 120.000-75.000 BP) by spotted hyena clans of Crocuta crocuta spelaea (Goldfuss 1823), which imported prey that resulted in a large bone accumulation in and around the cave. It was also used in the short term by porcupines as their den, such as proven for several Eemian to Early Weichselian cave faunas in Central Europe, especially Germany and Czech Republic, recently. In the cave recycled-by-hyenas cracked megafauna bones were found, on which they had chewed all around. These typically nibbled bones with parallel bite scratches were also found at other European caves such as presented here for two more new Hystrix cave sites in the Moravian Karst (Czech Republic) and indirectly prove their presence at more and more cave sites in Central Europe. Here, the recently learned 21 Late Pleistocene porcupine sites with skeletal material and more often the indirect proof by chewed bones are presented in an overview. Nearly all are cave localities, often being small cavities or the entrance parts of small caves were used as porcupine dens, as is proved here in the Fuchsluken Cave near Saalfeld. In many cases the porcupines used hyena dens and recycled their accumulated bone rubbish.

Abstract: Early to Middle Pleistocene Hystrix material in the collections of the IVPP in Beijing, has been biometrically studied and compared with other fossil and extant species. The specimens are from Zhoukoudian (Beijing), the Liucheng Gigantopithecus cave (Guangxi) and other caves in that province, the Wazhuwan and Yanhui Cave (Guizhou) and from Longgupo (Sichuan). None of the fossil specimens can be allocated to the extant Chinese Hystrix brachyura subcristata Swinhoe, 1870, subgenus Acanthion F. Cuvier, 1823. Most of the collections studied consist of a mixture of two species with overlapping size ranges. Cheek teeth of most Hystrix species do not show diagnostic characters other than size, so not every one of them can be assigned with certainty to the larger or the smaller species. Two hypsodont Hystrix (Hystrix) species are recognised. The smaller one, H. kiangsenensis Wang, 1931, is on average larger than H. brachyura subcristata. This smaller species has been recognized in the material from the Provinces Guangxi, Guizhou and Beijing. The second species, H. magna Pei, 1987, is on average larger than H. indica Kerr, 1792 and is found in essentially the same localities. The stratigraphie range of these species extends from Early Nihewanian (= early Early Pleistocene) to Early Zhoukoudianian (= early Middle Pleistocene). Syntype specimen IVPP nr. V5036.12 is indicated as the lectotype of H. magna Pei, 1987. The brachyodont lower premolar collected at Longgupo, Sichuan Province, is provisionally referred to Hystrix sp. instead of its allocation to H. magna Pei, 1987 given its similarities with Late Miocene to Pliocene Hystrix species of Europe and Asia. The relationship of H. magna Pei, 1987 with H. gigantea van Weers, 1985, H. refossa Gervais, 1852 and H. crassidens Lydekker, 1886 is discussed.