Carnivora (FERE)

Order of deciduate placental mammals, having teeth and claws adapted to feeding on animal prey. The skull is short and rounded with large zygomatic fo æ for the ma eter muscles, which close the jaws. The mandibular condyle is rounded and transversely transversely elongated. permitting jaw movements only in the vertical direction. The dentition is complete: nine incisors, four well-developed canines, and a variable number of præmolars and molars which vary from sectorial to tuberculated character, are present. See CARNASSIAL TEETH. The toes are unguiculate, the feet usually pentadactylous, the mode of progre ion various. The placenta is zonary, the mammæ abdominal, and the uterus two-horned. They are found over the earth's surface, except in Australia, where carnivorous Marsupials take their place. Numerous fo il forms are found beginning in the Eocene. There are two great sub-orders, the Pinniped i a (Aquatic Carnivora), and Fi iped i a (Terrestrial Carnivora).