GEOGRAPHICAL DISTKIBUTION AND DESCENT. 



235 



definite limited areas. If some, such as tlie 

 cheetahs or hunting-leopards among the 

 Felida, are confined to the warm regions of 

 the Old World, yet the true cats, by which 

 we mean the members of the genus Felis, 

 and also the lynxes are distributed over both 

 hemispheres from the extreme north to the 

 tropics. It is the same with the Canida: 

 dogs, wolves, and foxes are met with every- 

 where. In Africa alone can we point to the 

 large-eared forms (Lycaon, Megalotis, Fen- 

 necus) as localized, while China and Japan 

 possess the abnormal genus Nyctereutes. 

 The Martens and Weasels are found every- 

 where. The glutton is a form peculiar to 

 the Arctic regions of both hemispheres. The 

 otters inhabit all countries containing car- 

 nivores of any kind; but the sea-otter is a 

 special type belonging to the northern coasts 

 of the Pacific Ocean as far as Behring's 

 Strait. In the Badger family Ictonyx is 

 essentially African, the genera Arctonyx, 

 Mydaus, and Helictis are Asiatic; Mephitis 

 and Taxidea are exclusively American. 

 The true badgers, the genus Meles, are 

 natives of the cold and temperate parts of 

 the Eurasian continent, while the honey- 

 badgers belong to the tropical parts of India 

 and Africa. 



Altogether we observe in the geographical 

 distribution of the Carnivora, along with a 

 marked tendency to a general distribution 

 over the whole of the continental surface of 

 the earth, some striking local restrictions and 

 deficiencies, which can scarcely be explained 

 as due to the external conditions of climate 

 and food. Why could the Viverrida, which 

 are so widely distributed in the tropical parts 

 of the Old World, not live also in South 

 America? Why could the bears not live in 

 Africa? What is the significance of the 

 absolute exclusion of the Carnivora from the 

 Antilles, and of that of all families except the 

 Viverrida, together with the fossa (Crypto- 

 procta) from Madagascar? Whence this 

 wide distribution of the most important 



families over both hemispheres, over against 

 the exclusion of the bears from Africa, and 

 of the hyaenas and Viverrida from America? 



Palaeontology can give no categorical 

 answers to the.se questions, though it may, 

 perhaps, throw some light upon them. 



Two .sets of facts become prominent in 

 investigating the question of the origin of 

 the Carnivora; on the one hand, the resem- 

 blance to carnivorous marsupials presented 

 by several old genera, and, on the other 

 hand, the equivocal nature of the characters, 

 especially as regards the dentition, which, in 

 the case of many of the older fossil remains, 

 does not allow of us referring them to any of 

 the families now living. 



Among the old Carnivora palaeontologists 

 have distinguished one family, now extinct, 

 which lasted on from the Elocene to the 

 Pliocene, which was represented both in 

 America and in the Old World, and whose 

 dentition exhibits such singular characters 

 that some authorities have ranked it among 

 the marsupials. After the typical genus 

 Hya^nodon, which is represented in both 

 hemispheres, this family, consisting of half a 

 dozen genera, has been called the Hyseno- 

 dontida. The form of the molars, among 

 which there are always several carnassials, 

 approaches that of the carnivorous marsupials, 

 and judging from the casts of skulls that it 

 has been possible to make, the brain also re- 

 sembled the marsupial brain. The members 

 of the family were yet without doubt true 

 placental mammals. Filhol has been able to 

 prove this by the study of the milk dentition, 

 which is very different from that of the 

 marsupials. In these latter there is, in fact, 

 only a single tooth, the last premolar, which 

 is replaced by a permanent one, while in the 

 Hyaenodontida, as in all true carnivores, the 

 incisors, canines, and premolars are all decidu- 

 ous, those of the milk dentition being destined 

 to be replaced by a permanent set. But, 

 notwithstanding this irrefragable proof of the 

 right of the Hyaenodontida to a place among 



