Sonic the Hedgehog (character) Sonic the Hedgehog (character) Sonic the Hedgehog is the title character and protagonist of the "Sonic the Hedgehog" video game series released by Sega, as well as numerous spin-off comics, animations, and other media. Sonic is a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog who can run at supersonic speeds and curl into a ball, primarily to attack enemies. Throughout the course of the video games, Sonic most commonly has to race through levels, collect power up rings and survive against a host of natural obstacles and minions to achieve his goal. While many individuals at Sega had a hand in Sonic's creation, programmer
Sonic hedgehog B. Lewis, identified genes that control the segmentation pattern of the "Drosophila" embryos. The "hh" loss of function mutant phenotype causes the embryos to be covered with denticles, small pointy projections resembling the spines of a hedgehog. Investigations aimed at finding a "hedgehog" equivalent in vertebrates by Philip Ingham, Andrew P. McMahon, and Clifford Tabin, revealed three homologous genes. Two of these, "desert hedgehog" and "Indian hedgehog", were named for species of hedgehogs, while "sonic hedgehog" was named after Sonic the Hedgehog, the protagonist of the eponymous video game franchise. The name was devised by Robert Riddle, who was a