In the column Does kopi luwak coffee come from pre-eaten beans? Cecil mentions the Indonesian palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). What’s the straight dope on that critter’s scientific name?
The dictionary at the ARTFL Project alleges that the genus name Paradoxurus means “paradoxical tail”: the tails of these animals (not “true” civets, unlike those that civet musk is collected from) are unlike those of related animals. I haven’t been able to find anything on the species name, but the genitals of female hyenas (family Hyaenidae; palm civets are in the family Viverridae, subfamily Paradoxurinae, FWIW) are often indistinguishable from those of males at a casual glance; whether these things are related to each other, I don’t know.
It should be noted that one of the Perfect Master’s researchers, perhaps Little Ed, got somewhat confused on the subject. There is no animal called an “Indonesian palm civet”. P. hermaphroditus is the common palm civet, but Indonesia is home to a lot of civets, palm and otherwise, and the common palm civet is not restricted to Indonesia.
A number of references (obviously of such dubious quality that Little Ed didn’t bother with them) call the common palm civet a marsupial, which it is not.