Viverra leakeyi

Viverra leakeyi, also known as Leakey's civet or the giant civet, is an extinct species of civet. Its fossils have been found in Africa, from Langebaanweg, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and the Omo Valley.

Viverra leakeyi

Apokryltaros at English Wikipedia · CC BY 2.5 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
ViverraPBDB
Diet
carnivore, omnivorePBDB, for Viverra
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Viverra
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 1.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Miocene — about 3 of 11 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 8 of 11 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 11 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.8–9.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.4–9.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.1–8.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.8–8.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.4–8.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.1–7.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.8–7.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.4–7.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.1–6.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.8–6.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.4–6.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences6.1–5.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.8–5.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.4–5.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences5.1–4.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.8–4.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.4–4.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.1–3.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.8–3.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.4–3.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.1–2.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.8–2.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences5.333 Mya3.6 Mya12.1 Mya2.1 Mya

11 occurrences of Viverra leakeyi on record, most of them in the Pliocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

11 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

6 formations

Varswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EVogel River Series — 3.22°S, 35.20°EVogel River Series — 3.13°S, 35.13°EUSNO — 5.33°N, 36.17°ENawata — 2.90°N, 36.05°EAdu-Asa — 10.32°N, 40.25°ELukeino — 0.76°N, 35.88°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Viverra leakeyi has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Viverra leakeyi and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Viverra leakeyi and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

404 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Viverra leakeyi, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

10 references

Each of the 11 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Viverra leakeyi

Credit
Apokryltaros at English Wikipedia
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Viverra leakeyi was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itViverra through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Petter 1963)