Abstract:
The niche of the small semi-arboreal, solitary, and nocturnal insectivore-carnivore is occupied by the genus Genetta over most of Africa and southwest Europe. The dozen or so species comprising the genus are structurally coherent, exploit nearly all natural and cultivated habitats, and in many areas are a numerically dominant small carnivore. This success may be considered exceptional, for Genetta like Didelphis and Tupaiia is believed to be a relatively unmodified derivative of an ancestral form (GREGORY and HELLMAU 1939) COLBERT 1955). However, the view that the viverrines are the most structurally conservative viverrids is founded on the premise that tribosphenic molars, attenuated body form, and relatively unrestricted rotatory ability of manus and pes constitute features of the ancestral morphotype (GREGORY and HELLMM 1939, COLBERT 1955, ROMER 19^5)• Since both fossil viverrines, such as the Oligocene and Miocene genera Paleoprionodon and Stenoplesictis and extant civets such as Prionodon, Viverricula, Poiana, and Genetta more or less share these features, the subfamily Viverrinae is considered to be the most central and basal viverrid group (WINGE 19^1, THENIUS and HOFER i960, GREGORY and HELLMAN 1939, COLBERT 1955, ROMER I9I+5).
