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39-410: Carnivora ( / k ɑːr ˈ n ɪ v ər ə / kar- NIH -vər-ə ) is an order of placental mammals that have specialized in primarily eating flesh, whose members are formally referred to as carnivorans . The order Carnivora is the sixth largest order of mammals, comprising at least 279 species on every major landmass and in a variety of habitats, ranging from the cold polar regions of Earth to

78-566: A septum . Caniforms have single-chambered or partially divided auditory bullae, composed of a single bone. Initially, the early representatives of carnivorans were small as the creodonts (specifically, the oxyaenids) and mesonychians dominated the apex predator niches during the Eocene, but in the Oligocene, carnivorans became a dominant group of apex predators with the nimravids , and by the Miocene most of

117-439: A correlation between habitat and color pattern; for example spotted or banded species tend to be found in heavily forested environments. Some species like the grey wolf are polymorphic with different individual having different coat colors. The arctic fox ( Vulpes lagopus ) and the stoat ( Mustela erminea ) have fur that changes from white and dense in the winter to brown and sparse in the summer. In pinnipeds and polar bears ,

156-465: A supporting amount of evidence that Miacoidea is an evolutionary grade of carnivoramorphs that, while viverravids are monophyletic basal group, the miacids are paraphyletic in respect to Carnivora (as shown in the phylogeny below). Carnivoramorpha as a whole first appeared in the Paleocene of North America about 60 million years ago. Crown carnivorans first appeared around 42 million years ago in

195-442: A thick insulating layer of blubber helps maintain their body temperature. Carnivorans are arguably the group of mammals of most interest to humans. The dog is noteworthy for not only being the first species of carnivoran to be domesticated , but also the first species of any taxon. In the last 10,000 to 12,000 years, humans have selectively bred dogs for a variety of different tasks and today there are well over 400 breeds. The cat

234-665: Is a table chart of the extant carnivoran families and number of extant species recognized by various authors of the first (2009) and fourth (2014) volumes of the Handbook of the Mammals of the World : The canine teeth are usually large, conical, thick and stress resistant. All of the terrestrial species of carnivorans have three incisors on each side of each jaw (the exception is the sea otter ( Enhydra lutris ) which only has two lower incisor teeth). The third molar has been lost. The carnassial pair

273-475: Is another domesticated carnivoran and it is today considered one of the most successful species on the planet, due to their close proximity to humans and the popularity of cats as pets. Many other species are popular, and they are often charismatic megafauna . Many civilizations have incorporated a species of carnivoran into their culture: a prominent example is the lion , viewed as a symbol of power and royalty in many societies. Yet many species such as wolves and

312-427: Is made up of the fourth upper premolar and the first lower molar teeth. Like most mammals, the dentition is heterodont , though in some species, such as the aardwolf ( Proteles cristata ), the teeth have been greatly reduced and the cheek teeth are specialised for eating insects. In pinnipeds, the teeth are homodont as they have evolved to grasp or catch fish, and the cheek teeth are often lost. In bears and raccoons,

351-459: Is no exact agreement, with different taxonomists each taking a different position. There are no hard rules that a taxonomist needs to follow in describing or recognizing an order. Some taxa are accepted almost universally, while others are recognized only rarely. The name of an order is usually written with a capital letter. For some groups of organisms, their orders may follow consistent naming schemes . Orders of plants , fungi , and algae use

390-628: The Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle and the Genera Plantarum of Bentham & Hooker, it indicated taxa that are now given the rank of family (see ordo naturalis , ' natural order '). In French botanical publications, from Michel Adanson 's Familles naturelles des plantes (1763) and until the end of the 19th century, the word famille (plural: familles )

429-488: The Caribbean monk seal ( Neomonachus tropicalis ) in 1952. Some species such as the red fox ( Vulpes vulpes ) and stoat ( Mustela erminea ) have been introduced to Australasia and have caused many native species to become endangered or even extinct. Order (biology) What does and does not belong to each order is determined by a taxonomist , as is whether a particular order should be recognized at all. Often there

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468-475: The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event . These early ancestors of carnivorans would have resembled small weasel or genet -like mammals, occupying a nocturnal shift on the forest floor or in the trees, as other groups of mammals like the mesonychians and later the creodonts were occupying the megafaunal faunivorous niche. However, following the extinction of mesonychians and the oxyaenid creodonts at

507-541: The Middle Eocene . Their molecular phylogeny shows the extant Carnivora are a monophyletic group, the crown group of the Carnivoramorpha . From there carnivorans have split into two clades based on the composition of the bony structures that surround the middle ear of the skull, the cat-like feliforms and the dog-like caniforms . In feliforms, the auditory bullae are double-chambered, composed of two bones joined by

546-482: The big cats have been broadly hunted, resulting in extirpation in some areas. Habitat loss and human encroachment as well as climate change have been the primary cause of many species going into decline. Four species of carnivorans have gone extinct since the 1600s: Falkland Island wolf ( Dusicyon australis ) in 1876; the sea mink ( Neogale macrodon ) in 1894; the Japanese sea lion ( Zalophus japonicus ) in 1951 and

585-404: The carnassial pair is secondarily reduced. The skulls are heavily built with a strong zygomatic arch . Often a sagittal crest is present, sometimes more evident in sexually dimorphic species such as sea lions and fur seals , though it has also been greatly reduced in some small carnivorans. The braincase is enlarged with the frontoparietal bone at the front. In most species, the eyes are at

624-401: The clade Ferae . Ferae includes the closest extant relative of carnivorans, the pangolins , as well as several extinct groups of mostly Paleogene carnivorous placentals such as the creodonts , the arctocyonians , and mesonychians . The creodonts were originally thought of as the sister taxon to the carnivorans, perhaps even ancestral to, based on the presence of the carnassial teeth , but

663-442: The dental and cranial features, not much of their overall anatomy unites carnivorans as a group. All species of carnivorans are quadrupedal and most have five digits on the front feet and four digits on the back feet. In terrestrial carnivorans, the feet have soft pads. The feet can either be digitigrade as seen in cats, hyenas and dogs or plantigrade as seen in bears, skunks, raccoons, weasels, civets and mongooses. In pinnipeds,

702-477: The end of the Eocene, carnivorans quickly moved into this niche, with forms like the nimravids being the dominant large-bodied ambush predators during the Oligocene alongside the hyaenodont creodonts (which similarly produced larger, more open-country forms at the start of the Oligocene). By the time Miocene epoch appeared, most if not all of the major lineages and families of carnivorans had diversified and become

741-468: The ending -anae that was initiated by Armen Takhtajan 's publications from 1966 onwards. The order as a distinct rank of biological classification having its own distinctive name (and not just called a higher genus ( genus summum )) was first introduced by the German botanist Augustus Quirinus Rivinus in his classification of plants that appeared in a series of treatises in the 1690s. Carl Linnaeus

780-744: The extant carnivoran families have diversified and become the primary terrestrial predators in the Northern Hemisphere. In 1758, the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus placed all carnivorans known at the time into the group Ferae (not to be confused with the modern concept of Ferae which also includes pangolins) in the tenth edition of his book Systema Naturae . He recognized six genera: Canis (canids and hyaenids), Phoca (pinnipeds), Felis (felids), Viverra (viverrids, herpestids, and mephitids), Mustela (non-badger mustelids), Ursus (ursids, large species of mustelids, and procyonids). It

819-888: The field of zoology , the Linnaean orders were used more consistently. That is, the orders in the zoology part of the Systema Naturae refer to natural groups. Some of his ordinal names are still in use, e.g. Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) and Diptera (flies, mosquitoes, midges, and gnats). In virology , the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses 's virus classification includes fifteen taxomomic ranks to be applied for viruses , viroids and satellite nucleic acids : realm , subrealm , kingdom , subkingdom, phylum , subphylum , class, subclass, order, suborder, family, subfamily , genus, subgenus , and species. There are currently fourteen viral orders, each ending in

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858-406: The front of the face. In caniforms, the rostrum is usually long with many teeth, while in feliforms it is shorter with fewer teeth. The carnassial teeth of feliforms are generally more sectional than those of caniforms. The turbinates are large and complex in comparison to other mammals, providing a large surface area for olfactory receptors . Aside from an accumulation of characteristics in

897-652: The hyper-arid region of the Sahara Desert and the open seas. Carnivorans exhibit a wide array of body plans, varying greatly in size and shape. Carnivora are divided into two suborders , the Feliformia , containing the true felids and several " cat -like" animals; and the Caniformia , containing the true canids and many " dog -like" animals. The feliforms include the Felidae , Viverridae , hyena , and mongoose families,

936-407: The limbs have been modified into flippers . Unlike cetaceans and sirenians , which have fully functional tails to help them swim, pinnipeds use their limbs underwater to swim. Earless seals use their back flippers; sea lions and fur seals use their front flippers, and the walrus uses all of its limbs. As a result, pinnipeds have significantly shorter tails than other carnivorans. Aside from

975-886: The majority of which live only in the Old World; cats are the only exception, occurring in the old world and the new world, entering the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge. The caniforms include the Caninae , Procyonidae , bears , mustelids , skunks and pinnipeds that occur worldwide with immense diversity in their morphology, diet and behavior. The word carnivore is derived from Latin carō (stem carn- ) 'flesh' and vorāre 'to devour', and refers to any meat-eating organism. The oldest known carnivoran line mammals ( Carnivoramorpha ) appeared in North America 6 million years after

1014-529: The methods in which mammalogists use to assess the phylogenetic relationships among the carnivoran families has been improved with using more complicated and intensive incorporation of genetics, morphology and the fossil record. Research into Carnivora phylogeny since 1945 has found Fisspedia to be paraphyletic in respect to Pinnipedia, with pinnipeds being either more closely related to bears or to weasels. The small carnivoran families Viverridae, Procyonidae, and Mustelidae have been found to be polyphyletic : Below

1053-508: The most dominant group of large terrestrial predators in Eurasia and North America, with various lineages being successful in megafaunal faunivorous niches at different intervals during the Miocene and later epochs. The order Carnivora belongs to a group of mammals known as Laurasiatheria , which also includes other groups such as bats and ungulates . Within this group the carnivorans are placed in

1092-440: The nature of the carnassial teeth is different between the two groups. In carnivorans the carnassials are positioned near the front of the molar row, while in the creodonts they are positioned near the back of the molar row, and this suggests a separate evolutionary history and an order-level distinction. In addition, recent phylogenetic analysis suggests that creodonts are more closely related to pangolins while mesonychians might be

1131-783: The pinnipeds, dogs, bears, hyenas, and cats all have distinct and recognizable appearances. Dogs are usually cursorial mammals and are gracile in appearance, often relying on their teeth to hold prey; bears are much larger and rely on their physical strength to forage for food. Compared to dogs and bears, cats have longer and stronger forelimbs armed with retractable claws to hold on to prey. Hyenas are dog-like feliforms that have sloping backs due to their front legs being longer than their hind legs. The raccoon family and red panda are small, bear-like carnivorans with long tails. The other small carnivoran families Nandiniidae , Prionodontidae , Viverridae , Herpestidae , Eupleridae, Mephitidae and Mustelidae have through convergent evolution maintained

1170-420: The same position. Michael Benton (2005) inserted them between superorder and magnorder instead. This position was adopted by Systema Naturae 2000 and others. In botany , the ranks of subclass and suborder are secondary ranks pre-defined as respectively above and below the rank of order. Any number of further ranks can be used as long as they are clearly defined. The superorder rank is commonly used, with

1209-459: The sister group to carnivorans and their stem-relatives. The closest stem-carnivorans are the miacoids . The miacoids include the families Viverravidae and Miacidae , and together the Carnivora and Miacoidea form the stem-clade Carnivoramorpha . The miacoids were small, genet-like carnivoramorphs that occupy a variety of niches such as terrestrial and arboreal habitats. Recent studies have shown

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1248-403: The small, ancestral appearance of the miacoids, though there is some variation seen such as the robust and stout physicality of badgers and the wolverine ( Gulo gulo ). Most carnivoran species have a well-defined breeding season . Male carnivorans usually have bacula , which are absent in hyenas and binturongs . The length and density of the fur vary depending on the environment that

1287-433: The species inhabits. In warm climate species, the fur is often short in length and lighter. In cold climate species, the fur is either dense or long, often with an oily substance that helps to retain heat. The pelage coloration differs between species, often including black, white, orange, yellow, red, and many shades of grey and brown. Some are striped, spotted, blotched, banded, or otherwise boldly patterned. There seems to be

1326-765: The suffix -ales (e.g. Dictyotales ). Orders of birds and fishes use the Latin suffix -iformes meaning 'having the form of' (e.g. Passeriformes ), but orders of mammals and invertebrates are not so consistent (e.g. Artiodactyla , Actiniaria , Primates ). For some clades covered by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature , several additional classifications are sometimes used, although not all of these are officially recognized. In their 1997 classification of mammals , McKenna and Bell used two extra levels between superorder and order: grandorder and mirorder . Michael Novacek (1986) inserted them at

1365-451: The suffix -virales . Miacoidea Miacoidea ("small points") is a former paraphyletic superfamily of extinct placental mammals that lived during the Paleocene and Eocene epochs, about 66-33,9 million years ago. This group had been traditionally divided into two families of primitive carnivorous mammals: Miacidae (the miacids) and Viverravidae (the viverravids). These mammals were basal to order Carnivora ,

1404-574: The word family ( familia ) was assigned to the rank indicated by the French famille , while order ( ordo ) was reserved for a higher rank, for what in the 19th century had often been named a cohors (plural cohortes ). Some of the plant families still retain the names of Linnaean "natural orders" or even the names of pre-Linnaean natural groups recognized by Linnaeus as orders in his natural classification (e.g. Palmae or Labiatae ). Such names are known as descriptive family names. In

1443-478: Was not until 1821 that the English writer and traveler Thomas Edward Bowdich gave the group its modern and accepted name. Initially, the modern concept of Carnivora was divided into two suborders: the terrestrial Fissipedia and the marine Pinnipedia . Below is the classification of how the extant families were related to each other after American paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson in 1945: Since then, however,

1482-543: Was the first to apply it consistently to the division of all three kingdoms of nature (then minerals , plants , and animals ) in his Systema Naturae (1735, 1st. Ed.). For plants, Linnaeus' orders in the Systema Naturae and the Species Plantarum were strictly artificial, introduced to subdivide the artificial classes into more comprehensible smaller groups. When the word ordo was first consistently used for natural units of plants, in 19th-century works such as

1521-540: Was used as a French equivalent for this Latin ordo . This equivalence was explicitly stated in the Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle 's Lois de la nomenclature botanique (1868), the precursor of the currently used International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants . In the first international Rules of botanical nomenclature from the International Botanical Congress of 1905,

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