Caniformia

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Caniformia

Caniformia, or Canoidea (literally "dog-like") are a suborder within the order Carnivora

Carnivora

The diverse Order Carnivora includes over 260 species of eutheria mammals. Its members are formally referred to as carnivorans, while the word "carnivore" can refer to any meat-eating animal....
. They typically possess a long snout and non-retractile claws (in contrast to the cat-like carnivores, the Feliformia

Feliformia

The Feliformia are a suborder within the order Carnivora and includes the 'true-cats' , hyenas, mongooses, civets and related taxa. The other suborder of Carnivora is Caniformia ....
). The Pinnipedia (seals, sea lions, and walruses) evolved from caniform ancestors and are accordingly assigned to this group. All members of this group (with the exception of Canidae

Canidae

Canidae is the family of the dogs; a member of this family is called a canid. They include wolf, foxes, coyotes, and jackals. The Canidae family is divided into the "true dogs" of the tribe Canini and the "foxes" of the tribe Vulpini....
) have non-retractile claws and tend to be plantigrade

Plantigrade

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Caniformia, or Canoidea (literally "dog-like") are a suborder within the order Carnivora

Carnivora

Feliformia

Canidae

Plantigrade

In mammals, plantigrade locomotion means walking with the podials and metatarsals flat on the ground.Primates are examples of plantigrade species; in humans, the podials and metatarsals constitute the sole of the foot....
. Another trait that separates them from the Feliformia

Feliformia

Rostrum (anatomy)

A rostrum is an anatomy structure resembling a beak, such as the snout of a crocodile or dolphin or the foremost extension of a crustacean carapace....
with less specialized carnassials. They tend more towards omnivorous and opportunity-based feeding, while the feliforms are more specialized in eating meat. Caniforms have single-chambered or partially divided auditory bullae, composed of a single bone, while in feliforms the auditory bullae are double-chambered, composed of two bones joined by a septum

Septum

A septum is a partition separating two cavities or spaces. Examples include:*Nasal septum: the cartilage wall separating the nostrils of the human nose....
.

Extant families

Caniformia consists of twelve families, with nine extant and three extinct. At one time, Hyaenidae were included, but are now grouped with feliforms. Terrestrial caniforms in the wild are found on all continents with the exception of Antarctica

Antarctica

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, overlying the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctica of the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean....
, while pinnipeds are distributed throughout the world's oceans.

The Family Canidae
Canidae

Canidae is the family of the dogs; a member of this family is called a canid. They include wolf, foxes, coyotes, and jackals. The Canidae family is divided into the "true dogs" of the tribe Canini and the "foxes" of the tribe Vulpini....
(canids, commonly known as either dogs or canines) includes wolves, dog

Dog

The dog is a domesticated subspecies of the Gray Wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties....
s, fox

Fox

A fox is an animal belonging to any one of about 27 species of small to medium-sized Canidae, characterized by possessing a long, narrow snout, and a bushy tail, or brush....
es and so on. They are the most social of all the caniforms, living in packs. The dog is the most diverse of all mammals in terms of body structure. The Canidae family is divided into the "true dogs" of the tribe Canini and the "foxes" of the tribe Vulpini. The two species of the basal Caninae are more primitive and don't fit into either tribe.

The Family Ursidae (the bears) are the largest of all the land caniforms. They range from the large polar bear

Polar Bear

The polar bear is a bear native to the Arctic Ocean and its surrounding seas. The world's largest carnivore found on land, and shares the title of largest land predator with the Kodiak Bear, an adult male weighs around , while an adult female is about half that size....
(males, 775–1500+ lb) to the small sun bear

Sun Bear

The Sun Bear is a bear found primarily in the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia. Its Malay language and Indonesian language name is Beruang Madu ....
(males, 66–132 lb) and from the endangered giant panda

Giant Panda

The Giant Panda is a mammal classified in the bear family , native to central-western and southwestern China. The Giant Panda was previously thought to be a member of the Procyonidae family....
to the very common black bear

Black bear

Black bear may refer to:*American Black Bear*Asiatic Black Bear, including its subspecies *Maine Black Bears, the athletic teams representing the University of Maine...
. Common characteristics of modern bears include a large body with stocky legs, a long snout, shaggy hair, plantigrade

Plantigrade

In mammals, plantigrade locomotion means walking with the podials and metatarsals flat on the ground.Primates are examples of plantigrade species; in humans, the podials and metatarsals constitute the sole of the foot....
paws with five nonretractile claws, and a short tail. While the polar bear

Polar Bear

Giant Panda

Bamboo

The bamboos are a group of woody perennial plant evergreen plants in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae....
, the remaining six species are omnivorous, with largely varied diets including both plants and animals.

The Family Ailuridae
Ailuridae

Ailuridae is a family in the mammal order Carnivora. The family includes the Red Panda and its extinct relatives....
(red panda

Red Panda

The Red Panda, also called the Firefox or Lesser Panda , is a mostly herbivorous mammal, specialized as a bamboo feeder. It is slightly larger than a domestic cat ....
) was once thought to be either part of the Procyonidae or the Ursidae. It now belongs to its own family. It is found in the Himalayas

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalayas for short , meaning "abode of snow" ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau....
, including southern China

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia and is the world's youngest republic. It is bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by India....
, Bhutan

Bhutan

The Kingdom of Bhutan is a landlocked nation in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalaya Mountains and is bordered to the south, east and west by India and to the north by the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China....
, India

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
and Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
but may have also lived in North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
.

The Family Mephitidae (skunks), once thought to be part of the Mustelidae

Mustelidae

Mustelidae or Mustelids , commonly referred to as the weasel family, is a family of carnivora mammals. The Mustelidae is a diverse family and the largest in the order Carnivora, at least partly because it has in the past been a catch-all category for many early or poorly differentiated taxa....
, is now a group in its own right. There are 11 species of skunks, which are divided into four genera

Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
: Mephitis
Mephitis (genus)

The genus Mephitis has two species:*Striped Skunk *Hooded Skunk ...
(hooded and striped skunks, two species), Spilogale (spotted skunks, two species), Mydaus
Mydaus

Mydaus is a genus of Old World Carnivora comprising two species of stink badger. There are two species - the Palawan Stink Badger , and the Sunda Stink Badger or Teledu ....
(stink badgers, two species), and Conepatus (hog-nosed skunk

Hog-nosed skunk

The hog-nosed skunks belong to the genus Conepatus and are members of the family Mephitidae . They are native to the Americas....
s, five species). The two skunk species in the Mydaus genus inhabit Indonesia

Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
and the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
; all other skunks inhabit the Americas from Canada

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
to central South America

South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
.

The Family Mustelidae
Mustelidae

Mustelidae or Mustelids , commonly referred to as the weasel family, is a family of carnivora mammals. The Mustelidae is a diverse family and the largest in the order Carnivora, at least partly because it has in the past been a catch-all category for many early or poorly differentiated taxa....
(weasels and otters) is the most diverse of the group. While highly variable in shape, size and behavior, most mustelids are smaller animals with short legs, short round ears, and thick fur. Mustelids are predominantly carnivorous. While not all mustelids share identical dentition

Dentition

Dentition is the tooth development of teeth and their arrangement in the mouth.All mammals except the monotremes, the xenarthrans, the pangolins, and the cetaceans have up to four distinct types of teeth, with a maximum number for each....
, they all possess teeth adapted for eating flesh, including the presence of shearing carnassial

Carnassial

Carnassials are large teeth found in many carnivorous mammals, used for shearing flesh and bone in a scissor or shear-like way. In the Carnivora, the carnassials are the modified last upper premolar and the first lower molar , but in the prehistoric creodonts, the carnassials were further back in the jaw — first upper and second lower o...
s.

The Family Procyonidae
Procyonidae

Procyonidae is a New World family of the order Carnivora. It includes the Procyon s, coatis, kinkajous, olingos, Ring-tailed_Cats and cacomistles....
(raccoons, coatis, etc.) Procyonids are smallish animals, with generally slender bodies and long tails. Except for the kinkajou

Kinkajou

The kinkajou , also known as the honey bear, is a rainforest mammal of the family Procyonidae related to the olingo, Ring-tailed Cat, cacomistle, raccoon, and coati....
, all procyonids have banded tails, and distinct facial markings and, like bears, are plantigrade

Plantigrade

In mammals, plantigrade locomotion means walking with the podials and metatarsals flat on the ground.Primates are examples of plantigrade species; in humans, the podials and metatarsals constitute the sole of the foot....
, walking on the soles of their feet. Most species have non-retractile claws. It has been suggested that early procyonids were an offshoot of the canids

Canidae

Canidae is the family of the dogs; a member of this family is called a canid. They include wolf, foxes, coyotes, and jackals. The Canidae family is divided into the "true dogs" of the tribe Canini and the "foxes" of the tribe Vulpini....
that adapted to a more omnivorous diet.

The Superfamily Pinnipedia (seals, sea lions, walruses) are a widely distributed and diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammal

Marine mammal

Marine mammals are a diverse group of roughly 120 species of mammal that are primarily ocean-dwelling or depend on the ocean for food. They include the cetaceans , the sirenians , the pinnipeds , and several otters ....
s descended from a common ancestor

Enaliarctos

Enaliarctos is an extinct genus of pinniped.Five species in the genus Enaliarctos represent the oldest known pinniped fossils, and have been recovered from the late Oligocene and early Miocene of California and Oregon....
most closely related to modern bears. The superfamily comprises three families:

:Phocidae: (true seals or earless seals) comprise around 19 species of highly aquatically adapted, barrel-shaped animals ranging from 1.2 meters and 45 kg in length (the Ringed Seal

Ringed Seal

The ringed seal , also known as the jar seal and as netsik or nattiq by the Inuit, is an earless seal inhabiting the northern coasts....
), to 5 meters and 2,400kg (Southern Elephant Seal

Southern Elephant Seal

The Southern Elephant Seal is one of two species of elephant seal. It is not only the most massive pinniped but also the largest member of the order Carnivora to ever live....
). Phocids are found throughout the world's oceans.

Otariidae: (the eared seals, including sea lions and fur seals) Distributed throughout the world's oceans with the exception of the North Atlantic, the 16 species of otariid are distinguished from the phocids by visible external ears (pinnae), more dog-like faces and the ability to turn their rear flippers forward.

:Odobenidae (the walrus

Walrus

The walrus is a large pinniped marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere....
), of which the only surviving member is the walrus). A large (2000 kg), distinctive pinniped with long whiskers

Vibrissae

Vibrissae , or whiskers, are specialized hairs, usually employed for tactile sensation, but can also refer to the stiff feathers near the mouths of some birds....
and tusks, the walrus has a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean

Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic North Pole region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions....
and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere

Northern Hemisphere

The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of the equator?the word sphere literally means 'half sphere'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator....
. It is primarily a benthic forager of bivalve mollusks and other marine invertebrates

Marine invertebrates

The term "marine invertebrates" is used to describe animals found in a Marine environment which are invertebrates: lacking a notochord. In order to protect themselves, they may have evolved a Animal shell or a hard exoskeleton, but this is not always the case....
.

Evolutionary history

The caniforms first appeared as tree-climbing, marten

Marten

The Martens constitute the genus Martes within the subfamily Mustelinae, in family Mustelidae. They are slender, agile, animals, adapted to living in taigas, and are found in coniferous and northern deciduous forests across the northern hemisphere....
-like carnivores in the Paleocene

Paleocene

The Paleocene or Palaeocene, "early dawn of the recent" is a geologic epoch that lasted from 65.5 ? 0.3 Mega-annum to 55.8 ? 0.2 Ma . It is the first epoch of the Palaeogene Period in the modern Cenozoic era ....
(65–55 million years ago). Miacis
Miacis

Miacis is an extinct genus of mammals that appeared in the late Paleocene and are mammals of the family Miacidae, superfamily Miacoidea. They are representative of the group of early carnivores that were the ancestors of the modern Order Carnivora, although only the species Miacis cognitus is a true carnivoran....
was probably an early caniform. Like many other early carnivorans, it was well suited for an arboreal climbing lifestyle with needle sharp claws, and had limbs and joints that resemble those of modern carnivorans. Miacis was probably a very agile forest dweller that preyed upon smaller animals, such as small mammal

Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s, reptile

Reptile

Reptiles, or members of the class Reptilia, are air-breathing, cold-blooded vertebrates that have skin covered in scale as opposed to hair or feathers....
s, and bird

Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
s, and might have also have eaten egg

Egg (biology)

In most birds and reptiles, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum. To enable incubation the egg is usually kept within a favourable temperature range as it nourishes and protects the growing embryo....
s and fruit

Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
s, making Miacis an omnivore

Omnivore

Omnivores are species that eating both plants and animals as their primary food source. They are opportunistic, general feeders not specifically adapted to eat and digest either meat or plant material exclusively....
.

Caniformia

Extant families

Evolutionary history

Classification

External links