caniform

English
Some caniforms (clockwise from bottom left): South American coati, red panda, Sri Lankan jackal, black bear, striped skunk, yellow-throated marten

Etymology

From Latin canis (“dog”) + -form.

Adjective

caniform (not comparable)

  1. Characteristic of, or relating to the Caniformia.

Noun

caniform (plural caniforms)

  1. Any carnivore of the suborder Caniformia, which are regarded as dog-like.
    • 1997, Peter D. Ward, The Call of Distant Mammoths: Why the Ice Age Mammals Disappeared‎, page 73:
      Modern carnivores appeared as well, diverging into the feliforms (cats, hyaenas, and mongooses) and caniforms (dogs, bears, raccoons, weasels, and seals).
    • 2011, John P. Rafferty (editor), The Cenozoic Era: Age of Mammals‎, page 93:
      It is representative of a group of early carnivores, the miacids, that were the ancestors of modern caniforms: the canids (that is, the dogs, coyotes, wolves, foxes, and jackals) and a large group made up of the bear, raccoon, and weasel families.
    • 2013, Donald R. Prothero, Bringing Fossils to Life: An Introduction to Paleobiology‎, page 544:
      Some paleontologists argue that in fact they[extinct nimravids] are closer to caniforms, while others place them as a distant relative of the feliforms.

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