Spiny squirrel

Taxobox
name = Spiny squirrels
fossil_range = Early Oligocene - Recent

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image_width = 250px
image_caption = "Xerus rutilus")
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Rodentia
familia = Sciuridae
subfamilia = Xerinae
tribus = Xerini
tribus_authority = Osborn, 1910
subdivision_ranks = Genera
subdivision = †"Heteroxerus"
"Atlantoxerus"
†"Aragoxerus"
"Xerus"
"Spermophilopsis"

Spiny squirrel is a book-name for a group of African ground squirrels, characterized by the spiny nature of the fur of the more typical forms.

They form the genus "Xerus", which is split up into a number of subgenera; "Xerus rutilus" of Abyssinia and East Africa belonging to the typical group, while the striped North African "Xerus getulus" represents the sub-genus "Atlantoxerus". The more typical species are characterized by the coarse spiny hair, the small size, or even absence of the ears, and the long, nearly straight, claws. The skull is narrower and longer than in typical squirrels, and there are distinctive features in the cheek-teeth; but the more aberrant types come much closer to squirrels.

Typical spiny squirrels differ from true squirrels in being completely terrestrial in their habits, and live either in clefts or holes of rocks, or in burrows which they dig themselves.----