CHAPTER VII 



CARNIVORA (continued). THE WEASEL FAMILY 

 Family : MUSTELIDyE. THE WEASELS 



This is a more specialised group of Carnivores than the Bears 

 or the Raccoons. They never have more than one pair of molars 

 in the upper jaw and two in the lower. They preserve, however, 

 one feature in connection with the humerus, or arm bone (the 

 entepicondylar foramen, see p. 149), which makes them a little 

 more generalised than the bears. They branched off, no doubt, 

 from the dog-bear stock not far from the origin of the Fro- 

 cyonid^, and yet also not far from the point of origin of the 

 Civets and the Cats. Perhaps, on the whole, the Weasel group 

 is a family of Carnivores of Old World rather than New World 

 origin, though at the present day they are well represented in 

 both hemispheres. In the most ancient fossil forms there were 

 two molars in the upper jaw. At the present day the MusteUd<e 

 are divided into three sub-families — Lutrinct^ or Otters ; Melin^y 

 the Badgers ; and Mustelinde^ the Weasels. 



The Otters include one genus, Latax^ the sea otter, which 

 still exists on the Asiatic and American shores of the Pacific 

 Ocean. This animal bears a strange and disappointing resem- 

 blance to the seals, and exhibits to us, no doubt with seemingly 

 complete accuracy, the outward appearance of the transitional 

 form which stood between the normal land Carnivore and the 

 thoroughly aquatic seal. But this resemblance is only due to a 

 parallel line of evolution ; the otter taking entirely to a marine 

 life has actually got its body and hind limbs shaped to resemble 



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