MATTlli:\\ . CI.IMATI-: AX I) EVOLUTION 



211 



CARNIVOHA 



Thie modern land Carnivora are spread over all the great continents 

 except Australia, where a single species of wild dog, probably introduced 

 by man, is their only representative. They are found equally in all the 

 •continental islands (i. e., those included within the continental shelf 

 border), and a few have reached Madagascar and other large oceanic 

 islands. 



Fig. 9. — Distribution of tlie modern Caniilw 



The jackals (Ethiopian and Oriental) are slightly more primitive than the true wolves 

 and foxes ; the Neotropical "Dog-foxes" more distinctly so. Cyon, Icticyon and Lycaon 

 appear to be dispersed remnants of an aberrant group formerly Ilolarctic ; the ancestry 

 ■of the more typical Canida^ is also found in Tlolarctica. 



The order is unquestionably of Holarrtie origin. Primitive Carnivora 

 (Creodonta) are abundant in all the earlier Tertiary formations of Eu- 

 rope and Xorth America, one group (Miacida^) ancestral to the higher 

 Carnivora (Fissipedia), others which became extinct during the Oligo- 

 ■cene. True fissipede Carnivora first appear in the Upper Eocene in 

 Europe and North America and differentiate into the diverse modern 

 types through the remainder of the Tertiary. They did nut reach South 



