The eleven Old World porcupines tend to be fairly big, and have spikes that are grouped in clusters.

Acanthion is a subgenus of Old World porcupines.

The legend of the Rompo may have been inspired from sightings of any of the Old world porcupines.

Old World porcupines (hystricids)

(The independent development of spines by New and Old World porcupines is another example of parallel evolution.)

Some New World porcupines live in trees, but Old World porcupines stay on the rocks.

The Old World porcupines, or Hystricidae, are large terrestrial rodents, distinguished by the spiny covering from which they take their name.

Family Hystricidae: Old World porcupines (Africa, Asia)

The Indian Crested Porcupine (Hystrix indica), or Indian Porcupine, is a member of the Old World porcupines.

It is thought they migrated from Africa, ancestors of the old world porcupines or Hystricidae or they originated based on a migration of the North American Paramyidae.

Old World porcupines (Hystricidae) have quills in clusters, whereas in New World porcupines (Erethizontidae) single quills are mixed with bristles, underfur, and hair.

The New World porcupines evolved their spines independently (through convergent evolution) and are more closely related to several other families of rodent than they are to the Old World porcupines.

The Crested Porcupine (Hystrix cristata) is a typical representative of the Old World porcupines, and occurs throughout the south of Europe and North and West Africa.

Hystrix is also a synonym for the plant genus Elymus L. Hystrix is a genus of porcupine that contains what are the best known and most distinctive of the Old World porcupines.

The Old World porcupines (Hystricidae) are sometimes included in the Phiomorpha, but many authorities consider them either basal to all hystricognaths or basal to all hystricognaths except the Laotian Rock Rat (family Diatomyidae).

Old World porcupines are stout, heavily-built animals, with blunt rounded heads, fleshy mobile snouts, and coats of thick cylindrical or flattened spines, which form the whole covering of their body, and are not intermingled with ordinary hairs.

Hystrix cristata is part of the family Hystricidae.

Family Hystricidae.

The crested porcupine (Hystrix cristata) is a species of rodent in the Hystricidae family.

The Old World porcupines, or Hystricidae, are large terrestrial rodents, distinguished by the spiny covering from which they take their name.

Family Hystricidae: Old World porcupines (Africa, Asia)

Porcupines belong to more than 20 species of rodents in two families, Hystricidae (Old World) and Erethizontidae (New World).

Nine vessels of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Porcupine, after the porcupine, a rodent belonging to the families Erethizontidae or Hystricidae.

In fact, until the discovery of the Laotian Rock Rat, all modern hystricognath families were restricted to South America, Africa, or had a range that included Africa (Hystricidae).