Carnivora

Carnivoran
Temporal range: Early Eocene-Holocene[1]
CheetahBrown bearSpotted hyenaWolfBinturongRaccoonIndian grey mongooseAmerican minkFossaWalrus
Various carnivorans, with feliforms to the left, and caniforms to the right
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Clade: Carnivoramorpha
Clade: Carnivoraformes
Order: Carnivora
Bowdich, 1821[2]
Suborders
The extant distribution and density of Carnivora species.
Synonyms
list of synonyms:
  • Caniformes (Zagorodniuk, 2008)[3][4]
  • Carnaria (Haeckel, 1866)[5]
  • Carnassidentia (Wortman, 1901)[6]
  • Carnivoramorphia (Kalandadze & Rautian, 1992)[7]
  • Carnivores (Cuvier, 1817)[8]
  • Carnivori (Vieq d'Azyr, 1792)[9]
  • Carnivorida (Pearse, 1936)[10][11]
  • Carnivoriformes (Kinman, 1994)[12]
  • Carnivoripedida (Vyalov, 1966)[13]
  • Cynofeliformia (Ginsburg, 1982)
  • Cynofeloidea (Hough, 1953)[14]
  • Cynosia (Rafinesque, 1815)[15]
  • Digitigrada (Illiger, 1811)[16]
  • Digitigradae (Gray, 1821)[17]
  • Eucarnivora (Mekayev, 2002)[18]
  • Ferae (Linnaeus, 1758)[19]
  • Fissipeda (Blumenbach, 1791)[20]
  • Neocarnivora (Radinsky, 1977)[21]
  • Plantigrada (Illiger, 1811)

Carnivora /kɑːrˈnɪvərə/ 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 fifth largest order of mammals, comprising at least 279 species.

Carnivorans live on every major landmass and in a variety of habitats, ranging from the cold polar regions to the hyper-arid region of the Sahara Desert to the open seas. They come in a very large array of different body plans with a wide diversity of shapes and sizes.

Carnivora can be divided into two suborders, the Feliformia, containing the true felids and several "cat-like" animals; and the Caniformia, containing the true canids and many somewhat "dog-like" animals.

  1. ^ Foley, N. M.; Mason, V. C.; Harris, A. J.; Bredemeyer, K. R.; Damas, J.; Lewin, H. A.; Eizirik, E.; Gatesy, J.; Karlsson, E. K.; Lindblad-Toh, K.; Zoonomia Consortium; Springer, M. S.; Murphy, W. J. (2023). "A genomic timescale for placental mammal evolution". Science. 380 (6643). eabl8189. doi:10.1126/science.abl8189. PMC 10233747. PMID 37104581.
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  3. ^ Zagorodniuk, I. (2008) "Scientific names of mammal orders: from descriptive to uniform" Visnyk of Lviv University, Biology series, Is. 48. P. 33-43
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  5. ^ Haeckel, Ernst (1866.) "Generelle Morphologie der Organismen." Berlin: Georg Reimer.
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  10. ^ Arthur Sperry Pearse, (1936) "Zoological names. A list of phyla, classes, and orders, prepared for section F, American Association for the Advancement of Science" American Association for the Advancement of Science
  11. ^ G. G. Simpson (1952) "For and Against Uniform Endings in Zoological Nomenclature" in "Systematic Zoology Vol. 1, No. 1 (Spring, 1952)", pp. 20-23, Published By: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
  12. ^ Kenneth E. Kinman (1994.) "The Kinman System: Toward a Stable Cladisto-Eclectic Classification of Organisms: Living and Extinct, 48 Phyla, 269 Classes, 1,719 Orders", Hays, Kan. (P. O. Box 1377, Hays 67601), 88 pages
  13. ^ O. S. Vyalov (1966.) "Sledy Zhiznedeyatel'nosti Organizmov i ikh Paleontologicheskoye Znacheniye [Traces of Vital Activity of Organisms and their Paleontological Significance]" Naukova Dumka, Kyiv, 1-219
  14. ^ Hough, J. R. (1953.) "Auditory region in North American fossil Felidae: Its significance in phylogeny." United States Geological SurveyProfessional Papers, 243-G,95–115.
  15. ^ Rafinesque, Constantine Samuel (1815). "Analyse de la Nature ou tableau de l'univers et des corps organisés". 1815. Palermo, Aux dépens de l'auteur, 223 pp. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  16. ^ Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger (1811.) "Prodromus Systematis Mammalium et Avium." Berlin: Sumptibus C. Salfeld, xviii, 301 pages
  17. ^ Gray, J. E. (1821). "On the natural arrangement of vertebrose animals". London Medical Repository. 15 (1): 296–310.
  18. ^ Mekayev, Y. A. (2002.) "The faunagenesis and classification of mammals." Petrov’s Academy of Sciences and Arts, St. Petersburg, 1–895.
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference Linnaeus1758 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1791.) "Handbuch der Naturgeschichte. Vierte auflage." Göttingen, Johann Christian Dieterich, xii+704+[33] pp., 3 pls.
  21. ^ Leonard Radinsky (1977.) "Brains of early carnivores." Paleobiology, Volume 3, Issue 4, pp. 333 - 349
  22. ^ Gittleman, John L. (1989). Carnivore Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution. Boston, MA: Springer US. ISBN 978-1-4757-4716-4. OCLC 851800612.