feliform

feliform

English

Some feliforms (clockwise from bottom left): African palm civet, spotted hyena, fossa, leopard, stripe-necked mongoose, African civet

Etymology

From Latin feles, felis (“cat”) + -form.

Adjective

feliform (comparative more feliform, superlative most feliform)

1. Resembling a cat; applied to member of the Feliformia, a suborder within the order Carnivora consisting of cat-like carnivorans, including cats (large and small), hyenas, mongooses, civets, etc.

Translations

resembling cat

Finnish: kissamainen (fi)

Noun

feliform (plural feliforms)

1. Any carnivore of the suborder Feliformia, which are regarded as cat-like.
   • 2010, Anjali Goswami, 1: Introduction to Carnivora, Anjali Goswami, Anthony Friscia (editors), Carnivoran Evolution, page 7,

     However, when extinct genera are included, caniforms far outnumber feliforms, with 244 extinct caniform genera to 76 extinct feliform genera, if nimravids are included with feliforms (McKenna and Bell, 1997).

   • 2011, Rebecca E. Fisher, 6: Red Panda Anatomy, Angela R. Glatston (editor), Red Panda: Biology and Conservation of the First Panda, page 96,

     This arrangement is also found in procyonids; however, in mustelids and feliforms, the artery and the nerve travel through the foramen [39].

   • 2013, Terry A. Vaughan, James M. Ryan, Nicholas J. Czaplewski, Mammalogy, page 285,

     In feliforms, two bones (ectotympanic and entotympanic) unite to form the bullae with a septum separating the two resulting chambers. […] Palm civets are considered basal to all feliforms because they are genetically distinct from other feliforms and retain primitive auditory bullae lacking a septum (Flynn and Nedbal 1998).

Anagrams

• life form, lifeform