Deinogalerix
Sign in to saveDeinogalerix (from Ancient Greek, Deinos; "terrible/terror", + Galerix) is an extinct genus of gymnure which lived in Italy in the Late Miocene, 7-10 million years ago; gymnures belong to the subfamily Galericinae of the family Erinaceidae which also contain the hedgehogs, though extant gymnures and moonrats are fully hairy, without sharp quills. Deinogalerix is thought to have also lacked quills.
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- Deinogalerix koenigswaldi-Naturalis-PeterMaas.JPG
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- Deinogalerix
- taxon name
- Deinogalerix
- start time
- 10000000-0
- end time
- 5000000-00
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Deinogalerix (from Ancient Greek, Deinos; "terrible/terror", + Galerix) is an extinct genus of gymnure which lived in Italy in the Late Miocene, 7-10 million years ago; gymnures belong to the subfamily Galericinae of the family Erinaceidae which also contain the hedgehogs, though extant gymnures and moonrats are fully hairy, without sharp quills. Deinogalerix is thought to have also lacked quills.
The genus was endemic to what was then the island of Gargano, which is now a peninsula in southeastern Italy bounded by the Adriatic Sea. The first specimens of Deinogalerix were first described in 1972.