Carnivores live in a wide range of habitats and niches.
There is little in the outward appearance to unify the order. Body morphologies also vary greatly. A unifying quality between all of the species in the order is that the fourth upper premolar and first lower molar were adapted to sear through flesh. Only the more predacious of the modern species still posses this pair of slicing teeth called carnassials. In modern species that have vegetarian diets the carnassials have regressed to grinding surfaces.