ABSTRACT
The carnivores have an extremely good fossil record in the Pleistocene, especially as regards the larger species. The most serious lacunae occur among the mustelids. Some of the larger carnivores are among the most common fossils in Ice Age deposits. The hyenas are a young family of carnivores: they date from the Late Miocene. They arose from the Viverridae, and the genus Viverra may be close to the actual ancestry of the hyenas. The earliest felids appeared in the Late Eocene, about fifty million years ago. The family has a good fossil record. Apart from cats with normally developed teeth, the family also contains the extinct sabretoothed 'tigers' or sabre-tooths, which are often set off as a distinct subfamily of the Felidae. The Mustelidae is one of the oldest carnivore families. As the viverrids are linked to hyaenids and felids, so the mustelids form a natural group together with the dogs, procyonids and bears.
