Herpestinae
| Mongoose Temporal range: Oligocene to present |
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| Top left: Suricata suricatta Top right: Cynictis penicillata |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Suborder: | Feliformia |
| Family: |
Herpestidae Bonaparte, 1845 |
| Type genus | |
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Herpestes Illiger, 1811 |
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| Genera | |
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| Synonyms | |
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Top right: Cynictis penicillata
Below left: Galerella sanguinea
Below right: Herpestes edwardsii
Mongoose is the popular English name for 29 of the 34species in the 14 genera of the family Herpestidae, which are small feliform carnivorans native to southern Eurasia and mainland Africa. The other five species (all African) in the family are the four kusimanses in the genus Crossarchus, and the only species in the genus Suricata: Suricata suricatta, commonly called meerkat in English.
Six species in the family Eupleridae, endemic to the island of Madagascar, are also called "mongoose" and were originally classified as a genus within the family Herpestidae, but genetic evidence has since shown that they are more closely related to other Madagascar carnivorans in the family Eupleridae; they have, since 2006, been classified in the subfamily Galidiinae within Eupleridae.
Herpestidae is placed within the suborder Feliformia, together with the cat, hyena, and civet families.
The word "mongoose" is likely derived from the Marathi name mungūs (मुंगूस) (pronounced as [muŋɡuːs]) or probably ultimately from Telugu name mangisu or Tamil name mangus. The form of the English name (since 1698) was altered to its "-" ending by folk-etymology. It has no etymological connection with the word goose. Historically, it has also been spelled "mungoose". The plural form is mongooses, or, rarely, mongeese.
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Wikipedia