CLASSIFICATION. Two suborders are distill guished—Fissisedia. the typical terrestrial car nivo•e, and Pinnipedia, the aberrant, aquatic forms. The second suborder, with its numerous adaptive characters, has doubtless been derived from the first, and is divided into three with about fifty species: (I) otariida., or eared seals, nearest to the typical carnivore. and char aeterized by the presence of external ears. The sea-lions, sea-bears. sea-elephants, fur-seals. etc., are well-known examples. (2) Tricheehith• (or Rosin:16(1a•), the walruses (q.v.). of which only two species are known, characterized by the prolongation of the upper canim• teeth into two powerful tusks. (3) Phocid:e, or earless seals, characterized by the absence of external ears and the lack of tusks; there are about ten genera and some twenty species.
Cuvier proposed to divide the typical carni vores into Plantigrades, walking on the entire sole (e.g. bears), and Digitigrades, walking on finger-tips (e.g. cats) ; but these functional dif ferences are rendered useless by the multitude of transitional links connecting than, and it is more accurate and useful to divide the order into three sections, represented familiarly by bear, dog, and eat, and technically known as Aretoidea, Cynoidea, ..-Eluroidea. The distinctions are based
on certain features in the base of the skull, but are corroborated by other more general char acteristics.
(1) The Aretoidea, which are less specialized and nearest the aquatic suborder, are composed of six families—namely, the fur-bearers ( telida.). the bears (Ursidte), the raccoons (Pro eyonidte), and three small related families.
(2) The Cynoidea resemble the Aretoidea in most respects, and are composed of the single family Conidas—dogs, foxes, etc.
(3) _Eluroidea are the most specialized of carnivores, represented by eats, civets, etc., of which there are six families. The whole order of Carnivora embraces about 300 living species.