Description

Herpestides lemanensis

Miocene

Montaigu le Blin, France.

78mm lower and 39mm upper jaws of an early carnivore related to civets.

Mammal, Carnivora.

Herpestides is a genus of carnivoran mammal not assigned to a particular family but considered related to the Viverridae, the family that includes civets.  This genus is known from the Early Miocene of Europe and North Africa.  In life it was mongoose-like in form.