Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Subfamily
Animalia Chordata Mammalia Eulipotyphla Erinaceidae Erinaceinae

Hedgehogs!

hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are seventeen species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introduction. There are no hedgehogs native to Australia and no living species native to the Americas. However, the extinct genus Amphechinus was once present in North America. Hedgehogs share distant ancestry with shrews (family Soricidae), with gymnures possibly being the intermediate link, and they have changed little over the last fifteen million years. Like many of the first mammals, they have adapted to a nocturnal way of life. Their spiny protection resembles that of porcupines, which are rodents, and echidnas, a type of monotreme.

Four-toed hedgehog image North African hedgehog image Southern African hedgehog image Somali hedgehog image
Evil worm eater in action! Four-toed hedgehog North African hedgehog Southern African hedgehog Somali hedgehog,
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