''Civettictis'' is a genus of

viverrid Viverridae is a family of small to medium-sized, feliform mammals. The viverrids () comprise 33 species placed in 14 genera. This family was named and first described by John Edward Gray in 1821. Viverrids occur all over Africa, southern Europe, ...

that contains the extant

African civet The African civet (''Civettictis civetta'') is a large viverrid native to sub-Saharan Africa, where it is considered common and widely distributed in woodlands and secondary forests. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2008 ...

''(Civettictis civetta)'' and a recently described extinct relative from the

Plio-Pleistocene The Plio-Pleistocene is an informally described geological pseudo-period, which begins about 5 million years ago (Mya) and, drawing forward, combines the time ranges of the formally defined Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs—marking from about 5&nbs ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

known as ''

Civettictis braini ''Civettictis braini'' is an extinct species of civet that lived in South Africa during the Plio-Pleistocene. ''Civettictis braini'' differs significantly from the extant African civet The African civet (''Civettictis civetta'') is a large ...

''.

Evolution

A 2006

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

study showed that the African civet is closely related to the genus ''

Viverra ''Viverra'' is a mammalian genus that was first nominated and described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 as comprising several species including the large Indian civet (''V. zibetha''). The genus was subordinated to the viverrid family by John Edward G ...

''. It was estimated that the ''Civettictis''-''Viverra''

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

diverged from '' Viverricula'' around 16.2 Mya; the African civet split from ''Viverra'' 12.3 Mya. The authors suggested that the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

Viverrinae should be bifurcated into Genettinae ('' Poiana'' and '' Genetta'') and Viverrinae (''Civettictis'', ''Viverra'' and '' Viverricula''). The following cladogram is based on this study.

References

Mammal genera Mammal genera with one living species Taxa named by R. I. Pocock Viverrids {{carnivora-stub