Hystrix primigenia (Wagner, 1848)

Geraads, Denis, Spassov, Nikolaï, Hristova, Latinka, Markov, Georgi N. & Tzankov, Tzanko, 2011, Upper Miocene mammals from Strumyani, South-Western Bulgaria, Geodiversitas 33 (3), pp. 451-484 : 455

Hystrix primigenia (Wagner, 1848)

Scarce remains of this species were collected from Str-2: upper and lower incisors with a mandible fragment, some phalanges and fragments of metapodials, all probably from a single individual. The metapodials and phalanges are more robust than in modern Hystrix Linnaeus, 1758 . The length and proximal width of first two (anterior?) phalanges are: 19 × 11 mm and 17 × 10.9 mm. The length of a complete lower incisor, measured along the curve, is 105 mm.

The recent Hystrix have a solitary mode of life or lives in pairs and are not abundant in comparison to many other mammals of the same zoocoenosis. Probably because of a similar biology, H. primigenia , although frequent in the Upper Miocene of the Balkano-Iranian province, is never abundant. In the Turolian of Bulgaria it is known from the middle Turolian of Kalimantsi ( Sen & Kovachev 1987), and from the early/middle Turolian of Hadjidimovo-1 ( Spassov 2002), where it is represented by an almost complete skeleton ( Kovachev & Atanasova 2008).