CHAPTER X 

 THE CARNIVORES 



DIVERGENCE IN EVOLUTION 



The unity of the order — Ancestral importance of the Dogs — The 

 primitive position of the Civets — The Hyenas — Specialized 

 position of the Cats — Peculiarities of the Weasels — The 

 Raccoons and Bears — Specialized and aberrant features of 

 the Pinnipedia. 



The Fissipedia 



The order Carnivora today comprises two great suborders: 

 the Fissipedia including the Dogs, Cats, Bears, Raccoons, Civets, 

 Hyenas and Weasels; and the Pinnipedia under which title 

 are ranged the Sea-Lions, the Seals and the Walrus. The 

 ancestry of the Pinnipedia is very imperfectly known and Ave 

 shall therefore refer to them only in the briefest manner after 

 the other more typical suborder has been considered. 



Modern Fissipedia are widely divergent in habit and in 

 physical characters and but for their history as elicited' from 

 the rocks it would be realized with difficulty that they have 

 all a common origin. To understand this common origin Ave 

 must touch upon another suborder of the Carmwora, a group 

 of animals long extinct and known as the Creodonta. The 

 recorded history of the Creodonts began in the Paleocene and 

 they become finally extinct in the Oligocene. They Avere very 

 varied in character, being carnivorous or omnivorous and some 

 of them A'ery possibly insectiA T orous in habit. As a rule the 

 dentition Avas: 



172 



