CHAPTER VIII 



CARNIVORA (continued). CIVETS, MACHAIRODONTS, 



AND CATS 



In order that the reader who is not already a zoologist may- 

 apprehend the scheme of the existing Carnivora, an allusion may 

 be made here to the family of the Viverrida, or Civets, although 

 this group has not been represented in England since the Upper 

 Eocene (Oligocene) period, when a species allied to the existing 

 civets of India and Africa inhabited the Isle of Wight, and no 

 doubt other parts of Southern England. If, as supposed, this 

 Viverra hastingsi<e is really a member of the genus Viverra^ it 

 would make it almost the oldest mammalian genus in existence. 

 The Viverrids represent rather a generalised type of Fissipede 

 Carnivore, though a little more specialised in some directions 

 than the Dogs. They are one of those basal groups from which 

 more highly modified types, such as the Hyaenas, Cats, and 

 possibly the Machairodonts, sprang.^ The most frequent 

 dental formula amongst Viverrids is three pairs of incisors in 

 both jaws, one pair of canines, four pairs of premolars, and two 

 pairs of molars. The Civets possess, with few exceptions, the 

 alisphenoid canal and the entepicondylar foramen of the humerus 

 alluded to on pp. ii8 and 129. 



The Civets are entirely Old World in their range, past and 

 present. The site of their origin may have been Europe or 



^ There is some relationship between the Machairodonts and that 

 aberrant Viverrid of Madagascar, Cryptoprocta, which has many cat-like 

 features in its structure and dentition, but differs markedly from the Cats 

 and Civets in the arrangement of the external male genital organs. 



165 



