lolz

:3333 is there going to be a second one with even more mustelids? :D

I love thisssssss

FERRETBADGER

You have no idea how many people have never heard of them! :3

Including me! I was like HUH?!!! Ferret what?!! COOL!!!!
*faves*

YEEEES
I have a Ferret Badger character! Everyone thinks he's a hybrid. D:

Same!!! I love ferret badgers!

Got to love the completely unconnected Latin names for critters from the same family

Well, those names are just genus and species so why should they match even for species within a family?

Also, the depicted animals are from two families: Mephitidae, (the skunks and stink badger), and Mustelidae. To group them all together, you have to go to the superfamily level with Musteloidea.

well yes I was mixing the term family with genus, my bad.
What I meant was that I found it interesting how the fairly general English names don't bear any similarity to the technicalities of the taxonomy (try saying that fast :P) which in itself is rather arbitrary.

It's not really that arbitrary, the taxonomy relates to how closely related the animals are and the choice of name is intended to be descriptive when possible.

"Badgers" are scattered all over Musteloidea, so they belong to all sorts of different genera across two families and several subfamilies.

there is a certain arbitrariness associated with all taxonomy. For one thing the descriptions are often based on the subjective opinion of individual biologists. Linnaeus, the founder of modern taxonomy, peppered his work on plants with many 'descriptive' terms like clitoria, vulva, fornicata. Also, Meles meles: badger badger is only so named because it was the Europeans who coined all the early taxonomical names and they had no other animal to which to compare at the time. A more fitting name would be meles europa, much more descriptive. But as with most older terms they've passed into common knowledge in biological circles so there'd be nothing to be gained from changing them aside from if new dna evidence has any bearing, hence Canis familiaris becoming Canis lupus familiaris.

and now I have badger badger badger stuck in my head.

Meles meles, Meles meles, Meles meles, Meles meles, Amanita muscaria. Meles meles, Meles meles, Meles meles, Meles meles, Aahh Serpetus, a Serpentus, Serpentus. Woooah it's a Serpentus

1.) The taxonomic discussion was interesting AND fun to read. You both made good points regarding accuracy, but it's important not to forget that the historical biologists that named many of these critters were just as biased as any today, if not more-so.

2.) That last bit, the Latin version of the Badger song, both crossed my eyes and rocked my world.

Love it! Didn't realize the tayra was grouped in with "stinkers and scrappers" (thought it was closer to the martens). Love the face on the teledu!

That's what I thought too

Me too. Didn't know tayra's were so suicidal as well, dancing on a honey badger's back! That can only end in pain.

Simply forgot to include the tayra in the other 2 mustelid images. If you were called a Stink Badger, you'd be pretty sour about it too!

YES! Someone else has heard of ferret and hog badgers :D Your ratel is awesome and I love the ferocity of that wolverine.

A Tayra! My favorite! Thanks, Roz!!

I probably would have bid on this one, but I had only a carry-on and no easy way to get anything that size home.

you left out the eastern spotted. But great work no matter what

A great piece. I love the facial expression on the teledu and how it looks as if the wolverine and ratel are going to rip one another apart. The claws on the ratel are short though.

You need to add the zorilla, African striped weasel and the eastern spotted skunk to the collage though.

This one not many people have heard of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa.....Striped_Weasel
http://www.redorbit.com/modules/ref.....1c4887e173.jpg

Zorilla: Considered to be the ultimate in reeking creatures:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striped_Polecat
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/sp.....1793/img/1.jpg

There is a lot of stinky and feisty mustelids.

Those are in two eariler pictures: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1134006/
and http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1134013/

I didn't include both spotted skunks because they pretty much look the same, which would make for a scientificly accurate by visually dull image.

Pretty cool ^.^

Hey, this is really good! My fursona is a tayra. ^^;

The ferret badger is really cute. :)

Awww! This is brilliant! ^_^ I love it!

hey.... wheres the tazmanian devil at ? really good work hun keep it up

Tassie devil is a marsupial, not a mustelid.

i like the ratel... and i also like the wolverine... but which is better?...

Nice representation here! I don't see many tayras.

Very nice work!
I didn't know about ferret badgers or tayras before. So thanks for sharing!