Different things may describe carnivores, but one of the most common is the fact that it will eat other types of meat. Carnivores may use their sense of smell so that they can hunt. They have sharp teeth that they will use to tear the meat into pieces before they swallow what they have hunted.
They will also use their claws so that they can effectively tear the meat before consuming them. Some people assume that only animals can be carnivores, but as long as a living thing would need the meat of other animals to survive, it will also be considered a carnivore. Some plants are carnivorous too.
It is believed that the first carnivores for medium and large tetrapods evolved from insectivore-like (animals that feed on insects and worms) ancestors in the late Paleocene, about 55 million years ago. The first vertebrate carnivores are believed to be fish, followed by amphibians that moved on to land.
Some scientists confidentially believe that “Dimetrodon” (an extinct genus of the Synapsids that lived during the Cisuralian) was the first terrestrial vertebrate to develop the curved, serrated teeth that allowed a predator to eat prey that is much larger than itself. Most mammalian carnivores share several dental adaptations, such as their long and sharp canine teeth and carnassial features.
