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Viverridae is a family of small to medium-sized mammals, the viverrids (), comprising 15 genera, which are subdivided into 38 species.〔 This family was named and first described by John Edward Gray in 1821. Members of this family are commonly called ''civets'' or ''genets''. Viverrids are found in South and Southeast Asia, across the 'Wallace Line', all over Africa, and into southern Europe. Their occurrence in Celebes and in some of the adjoining islands shows them to be ancient inhabitants of the Old World tropics.〔Pocock, R. I. (1939). (''The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Mammalia. – Volume 1'' ). Taylor and Francis, London. Pp. 330–332.〕 ==Characteristics== Viverrids have four or five toes on each foot and half-retractile claws. They have six cutting teeth in each jaw and true grinders with two tubercular grinders behind in the upper jaw, and one in the lower jaw. The tongue is rough with sharp prickles. A pouch or gland occurs beneath the anus, but there is no coecum.〔 Viverrids are the most primitive of all the families of aeluroid Carnivora and clearly less specialized than the Felidae. In external characters, they are distinguished from the Felidae by the hind foot being five-toed owing to the invariable presence of the first digit, by the retention of the interramal tuft of facial vibrissae, and typically by the longer muzzle and shorter limbs. The skull differs by the position of the postpalatine foramina on the maxilla, almost always well in advance of the maxillopalatine suture, and usually about the level of the second premolar; and by the distinct external division of the auditory bulla into its two elements either by a definite groove or, when rarely this is obliterated, by the depression of the tympanic bone in front of the swollen entotympanic. The typical dental formula is: , but the number may be reduced, although never to the same extent as in the Felidae.〔 Their flesh-shearing carnassial teeth are relatively undeveloped. Most viverrid species have a baculum. Viverrids range in size from the African linsang with a body length of and a weight of to the African civet at and , although very large binturongs, which can weigh up to , attain the greatest mass. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「viverridae」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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