#Caniformia

[taxonomytournament]

Taxonomy Tournament: Mammals

Chiroptera. This order is made up of bats, the only mammals capable of self-powered flight. It is the second-most speciose order of mammals, with over 1400 species.

Caniformia. This suborder of Carnivora contains dogs, foxes, bears, otters, badgers, raccoons, skunks, seals, and walruses.

[saritawolf]

North American River Otter (Lontra canadensis) - (c) SaritaWolf - please do not repost

[sourcreammachine]

even before finding out about the Caniformia suborder, most people, like, know it exists. it makes sense. everyone already understands that bears and seals and ferrets are breeds of dog

[dog-and-doglike-tourney]

Red fox

Spotted skunk

[neurovarious]

ive found another beast with an Exceptional shape. this is a white nosed coati and they have such snoots...

[tysonfurybattlepass]

Were there any saber tooth extinct guys on the dog side of things?

interestingly enough, caniformia as a suborder seems to be notably lacking in any saber-toothed representatives. though i can’t find any research specifically into this topic, i do have my own hypothesis as to why, and it hinges on two major points:

first has to do with the basal morphology of the lineage; in general, caniformia tend to lean toward smaller and more numerous teeth. relative to skull size, most caniforms have relatively short, thin canines. this means that, evolutionarily speaking, they simply have less to work with in regards to expressing a saber-toothed phenotype.

^chad felid fangs vs virgin canid fangs

it would take a lot more evolutionary innovation to turn the average caniform canine tooth to what we would consider a saber, so without incredibly intense selective pressure, it wouldn’t be likely to occur.

which brings me to point number 2; there isn’t really any selective pressure for caniforms to develop huge canines, since the saber-toothed phenotype wouldn’t actually be that beneficial for most caniform animals. this is because the saber-toothed build synergizes best with ambush predators that need to kill large prey quickly. sabers can deliver massive damage in a single strike, but are generally very fragile and so using them recklessly on moving targets often ends in a permanently broken tooth.

if we look at the way that caniforms like canids hunt, they are generally persistence predators without the strength needed to physically restrain an animal for a kill strike. rather, they rely on accumulative damage done by multiple bites over the course of a chase in order to bring down large animals. with this strategy in mind, very thin, fragile, and unwieldy saber teeth simply would be more of a liability than an advantage.

on the ursidae side of things, we see primarily generalist omnivorous animals that generally don’t hunt things bigger than themselves (even the hypercarnivorous polar bear only eats seals, which are much smaller than the bears themselves), so gigantic saber teeth are simply not necessary. the same could be said for mustelids, pinnipeds, and procyonids, which trend toward the small-to-medium generalist lifestyle.

if saber teeth are a very specialized strategy developed specifically for dispatching massive prey quickly, then no caniforms really have a lifestyle that would call for such an adaptation. likely because feliforms took a stranglehold on the ambush predator niche as soon as they appeared, and as of now have not let go of it yet. as cool as it would be to see a saber toothed dog or bear or raccoon, the sad truth is that it wouldn’t work logistically :(

[ognimdo2002]

Raccoon (Procyon lotor) – Washing Puppy

🦝🇮🇹

The raccoon (Procyon lotor), also spelled racoon, mapache, washbear, and sometimes called the common raccoon or northern raccoon to distinguish it from the other species, is a mammal native to North America.

Physiology

The animal's most distinctive features include its extremely dexterous front paws, its facial mask, and its ringed tail, which are common themes in the mythologies of the Native Americans in North America (from Iroquois, Tuscarora, Abenaki, Powhatan, Cherokees, Navajo, Mayans, to Aztecs) surrounding the species, including from Latin American to Anglo American cultures.

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raccoon

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kKL20WFmVrw

[this-dragon-barks]

I don't remember having a phantom tail before, typically it is my maw that I feel. However, today when I woke up I felt it, and it kind of itched and I couldn't fix it. Strange. Good Strange.

[yveltalreal]

absol look more like dogs than a zoroark or unbreon does

okay well now youre just lying to yourself

also mightyena look like dogmons but they arent even canines

[taxonomytournament]

Taxonomy Tournament: Mammals

Caniformia. This suborder of Carnivora contains dogs, foxes, bears, otters, badgers, raccoons, skunks, seals, and walruses.

Feliformia. This suborder of Carnivora is made up of the felines, as well as hyenas and mongooses.

[saritawolf]

California Sea Lion pup (Zalophus californianus) - (c) SaritaWolf - please do not repost

[rebellum]

I'm trans masc in the same way a raccoon is a dog.

Like, sure, I guess, if we are looking at this in a taxonomy / cladistics kinda way, I guess.

[dog-and-doglike-tourney]

Arctic fox

Raccoon dog

[anirobot]

WWF Wildlive  –  Baltic ringed seal