Systematic revision of the Erinaceidae (Mammalia): A comprehensive phylogeny based on the morphology of all known taxa

A rigorous phylogenetic analysis of the morphological data of both the living and fossil hedgehogs is herein presented. Previously posited evidence for the monophyly of the Erinaceidae is reevaluated and new lines of evidence (i.e., morphological, dental, and morphometrics) are considered. In addition, this analysis explores cited methodological 'constraints' that preclude the combining of traditionally partitioned data sets; in this particular case: living taxa; fossils; complete morphological data; and only dental data.;An analysis of 258 discrete dental apomorphies within the Erinaceidae was first conducted across series of 19 living taxa for inter- and intraspecific variation. This was in response to the overwhelming representation of both character and fossil taxa of only discrete dental material, and the fact that many of these cited apomorphies had not been reviewed across the extant forms. Results strongly suggest that teeth as the only source of evidence of historical relationships, are unreliable due to the ubiquity of individual variation.;Continuous data was secondarily analyzed to determine whether or not wear stage covaries with a change in size, and consequently a loss of certain discrete characters. Results of the measurements of the M1 across one taxon suggest that there is a negative correlation between size and age, however it can not be correlated with conditions in discrete dental transformation series.;The complete data set considered in the phylogenetic analyses consists of 135 cranial, postcranial, dental, and pelage characters and 45 in-group taxa, to include almost all the known living forms, and representatives from the majority of the fossil genera. Results suggest the following: (1) historically partitioned data sets can have different rates of evolution; (2) combining of all the data in one phylogenetic analysis is critical for resolving the tree at all levels; (3) inclusion of fossil taxa are critical for identifying homoplasy; (4) fossil taxa are reassigned to different subfamilies and genera; and (5) relationships of the taxa suggest that the family is considerably older than previously believed.