| Named By: | Greenwood in 1955 |
| Time Period: | Early Miocene-recent |
| Location: | Africa |
| Size: | Uncertain due to lack of remains, but comparison to similar animals yields an estimate of 60 to 90 centimetres long |
| Diet: | Omnivore |
| Fossil(s): | Many specimens, mostly of the dentaries |
| Classification: | | Chordata | Mammalia | Rodentia | Ctenohystrica | Hytricognathi | |
The Old World porcupines, or Hystricidae, are large terrestrial rodents, distinguished by the spiny covering from which they take their name. They range over the south of Europe and the Levant, most of Africa, India, and the maritime Southeast Asia as far east as Flores. Although both the Old World and New World porcupine families belong to the Hystricognathi branch of the vast order Rodentia, they are quite different and are not closely related.