Viverra leakeyi
Viverra leakeyi was a very large species of civets in the genus of the Asian civet cats that lived from the late Miocene to the Pleistocene in Africa.
Asian civet cats are, as already inferred from the name, now home only on the Asian continent. With Viverra leakeyi and related prehistoric species, however, are also members of the genus in Africa and in Europe.
Fossils of the species were found among others at Langebaanweg in South Africa, in the Omo Valley in Ethiopia and Laetoli in Tanzania.
Features
Viverra leakeyi is the largest civet cat that has ever existed. The fossils found indicate that the animal reached a shoulder height of about 50 cm and thus was significantly greater than all of today's civet cats. Fossil finds of Viverra leakeyi usually confined to the part of the skull. The skull was similar to that of today's Asian civets strong, the dentition, however, indicates that Viverra leakeyi was more adapted to a predatory lifestyle than the recent civets and possibly active small and medium-sized mammals hunted.