A carnivore , meaning 'meat eater' (Latin carne meaning 'flesh'
and vorare meaning 'to devour'), is an animal with a diet
consisting mainly of meat, whether it comes from animals living or
dead (scavenging). Some animals are considered carnivores even if
their diets contain very little meat (e.g., predatory arthropods
such as spiders or mantis that may rarely consume small vertebrate
prey). Animals that subsist on a diet consisting only of meat are
referred to as obligate carnivores.
The word sometimes refers to the mammals of the Order Carnivora,
but this is misleading. Many (but not all) Carnivora fit the first
definition of being meat eaters. For example, bears are members of
Carnivora that are not true carnivores. And Carnivorans that eat
insects primarily or exclusively are called insectivores, while
those that eat fish primarily or exclusively are called piscivores.
Mammals of the crown-clade Carnivoramorpha (Carnivora and Miacoidea
without Creodonta), along with the early Order Creodonta, and some
mammals of the even early Order Cimolesta, were carnivores in the
strict sense of the word, i.e., that they were "meat eaters." The
earliest mammal carnivore is considered to be the Cimolestes that
existed during the Late Cretaceous and Tertiary Periods in North
America about 65 million years ago. The Creodonta are thought to be
the basal group for modern carnivores. The theropod dinosaurs such
as Tyrannosaurus rex that existed during the Triassic, although not
mammals, were obligate carnivores.
All carnivores have digits with well-developed claws and
dentition and enlarged canine teeth. However, the defining
characteristic of carnivores are the large carnassial teeth - the
specialization of the fourth upper premolar (P4) and first lower
molar (m1) for cutting and shearing. Carnassial dentition is
especially well developed in highly predatory mammals, such as
felids, canids, and hyaenids, and less well developed in more
omnivorous groups, such as ursids and procyonids. The articulation
of the jaw with the cranium is typically hinged so as to prevent
any lateral motion that might occur as captured prey struggle to
escape (Feldhamer, 2003).
There are also several genera and a few hundred species of
carnivorous plants, though these are primarily insectivorous.