Ailuridae

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family of medium-sized carnivorous mammals that includes raccoons, pandas, and related species distributed across Asia and North America
2. The taxonomic family encompassing carnivores such as giant pandas, red pandas, and raccoons, characterized by their distinctive teeth and body structure
3. A group of flesh-eating mammals belonging to the order Carnivora, notable for including both the giant panda and the common raccoon

Etymology: Ailuridae is the scientific name of the family containing the red panda, and it was built from a Greek word for cat. The Greek "ailouros" literally meant "cat" (it was once glossed as "fire-tail" or "waving tail" in folk etymology, but the usual derivation is uncertain). The family name was coined in the nineteenth century, when naturalists began classifying the red panda and its relatives, and it follows the standard zoological pattern of taking a genus name and adding the Latin plural ending "-idae" to mark a family. The genus at its center is "Ailurus," which the French zoologist Frédéric Cuvier named in 1825 for the red panda. Cuvier chose a Greek root meaning cat, so the name describes the animal as a kind of cat even though the red panda is not closely related to cats at all. Its closest living relatives were long debated, and the family is now generally placed within the broader group of carnivorans, close to the raccoons and weasels.

Synonyms: red panda family