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ANNALS NEW YORK ACAUEMY OE SCIENCES 



from a Palsearctic source. The most primitive bears first appear in the 

 Miocene of Europe; in tlic Xew A\'orkl, they first appear in the Pleisto- 

 cene. They are to-day chiefly Tlolarctic : the single South American 

 species is distinctly primitive; the Oriental sun-bear and sloth-bear are 

 partly aberrant, partly primitive. The Thibetan J'Jluropus is aberrant 

 and specialized ; its relation to the typical Ursidce is not very close. 



Viverrida'. — The Yiverrida} are now almost exclusively Oriental and 

 Ethiopian and have conserved the primitive type more than any otlier 



Fig. 11. — Distribution of the Ursidw, Pleistocene and Recent 



The group appears to have dispersed from a Paliparctic center, its Tertiary ancestral 

 series being found in Europe and in the I'llocene of India and China. 



Carnivora, except some of the Procyonidaj which have a somewhat corre- 

 sponding geographic position in the Xew World. The three most pro- 

 gessive genera, Herpesies, Genetta and Viverra, survive to-day along the 

 southern borders of the Pahparctic region; the remainder are Ethiopian 

 or Oriental, the most primitive living genera being west African and 

 East Indian. Herpestes and Viverra occur in the Oligocene and Mio- 

 cene of Germany and France, and more primitive extinct genera in the 

 Upper Eocene of Europe. 



