1 66 BRITISH MAMMALS 



Northern Africa. In Europe (including Britain) their remains 

 go back to the Upper Eocene. Down to the present time no 

 remains have been found in Asia of any form of civet anterior 

 to the Upper Miocene. Europe, therefore, may have had the 

 privilege of originating this group, as it may also have given 

 birth to the Dogs, Weasels, Hyaenas, Cats, Machairodonts, and 

 even the basal forms of the true Carnivora. With Europe in 

 these developments might have been associated the Continent 

 of Africa, at any rate its northern portion. 



FAMILY: HYJENID&. THE HYAENAS 



The Hyaenas undoubtedly sprang from the Civets through, 

 some such type as the extinct Ictitherium. In their divergence 

 from this group they threw off a curious degenerate form, the 

 Aard Wolf (Proteles] of Africa. This family has lost the 

 alisphenoid canal in the base of the skull and the entepicondylar 

 foramen of the humerus. The dental formula is reduced in 

 existing forms to three pairs of incisors in both jaws, one pair of 

 canines, four pairs of premolars in the upper jaw and one pair 

 in the lower, and only one pair of molars in both jaws. The 

 teeth, especially the canines and hinder molars, are large and 

 strong. The upper carnassial has a great blade divided into three 

 distinct lobes. The single upper molar tooth is very small, and 

 placed at right angles to the hinder edge of the carnassial 

 premolar. The whole of the hyaena's skull is strengthened with 

 a view to the cracking of bones by the powerful jaw. The limbs 

 are practically four-toed, as the first toes on fore and hind feet 

 are only represented by rudimentary bones. There are anal 

 scent glands under the tail, as in so many of the Carnivora. The 

 genus Hy<ena at the present day is divided into three species, 

 the first two of which (the striped and the brown hyaenas) are 

 closely allied, while the third species, the spotted, is almost 

 generically distinct. The brown hyaena still exists in South and 

 East Africa, and is perhaps the most generalised of the existing 

 forms ; but as no trace of it has ever been found in England 

 it would be out of place to describe it here. 



