Carnivore

  • Video

    • Bush Dogs

      • Like wet areas

      • Strongest dog bite force

      • Only dog with webbed feet

      • Female dominant groups

      • Very reliant on sight and smell

      • Short legs good for dense underbrush

    • African Hunting Dog

      • Hunt wildebeests in packs of up to fifty

      • 80% hunt success rate, most successful hunter in the world

      • Eat quietly to avoid attracting lions

      • Males hunt while females raise young

      • Only the dominant pair breeds

    • Wolves

      • Only the dominant pair breeds

      • 10% hunt success rate

Development of carnassial pair can hint at how carnivorous a species is

Cribriform Plate is where olfactory nerves go to connect to the olfactory bulb

Turbinate is papery bone that regulates temperature of blood to brain

  • Ursidae

    • Has alisphenoid canal

    • Bunodont

    • Tiny upper P4

    • Underdeveloped carnassial pair

  • Canidae

    • Alisphenoid canal

    • Well developed carnassial pair

    • Occipital ridge

    • Sagittal crest

      • Gray Fox

        • Frosted back

        • Parietal ridge is lyre shaped

        • Prominent indentation at post-orbital process

        • Notch in dentary before angular process

      • Red Fox

        • European in origin

  • Felidae

    • Well-developed carnassial pair

      • Lynx

        • Wide and curvy presphenoid

        • Easily visible jugular foreman and hypoglossal foreman

      • Bobcat

        • Straight and narrow presphenoid

        • Jugular foreman and hypoglossal foreman not easily visible

      • Hyena

        • Sagittal arch

        • Strong zygomatic arch

  • Procyonidae

    • Bunodont

    • 40 teeth

  • Mephitidae

    • Upper P4 is almost tri-cusp

    • Flat auditory bulla

  • Ailuridae

    • Red panda

    • Collection skull has good view of cribriform plate

    • Most well-developed post-glenoid process

    • Doubly bunodont

  • Mustelidae

    • Wolverine, fisher, and martens have restricted back molars

    • Northern river otter has tiny post-orbital process

    • Short-tail and least weasels are European in origin