Carnivora
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Carnivora. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
flesh-eating animals. In one sense of the word a mosquito hawk is a flesh eater, so is an eagle; but the term is restricted to mammals with small heads and sharp teeth for seizing and rending their prey. Carnivora are of two groups. The first includes the seal, walrus, seahorse, etc., which may be regarded as otters with legs changed into swimming flippers. They are very agile in the water, but are clumsy and decidedly out of their element on the land. Four-legged carnivora fitted for pursuit of their prey and for terrestrial life are divided into five families: 1. The cat family, with five retractile claws on each foot,--cat, lion, tiger, leopard, etc. 2. The dog family, with five non-retractile claws on each foot,--dog, wolf, fox, jackal, etc. 3. The hyena family, long front legs and with non-retractile claws, four toes on each foot,--hyena, aardwolf, etc. 4. The weasel family, with long bodies and short legs, usually five toed,--the weasel, marten, mink, skunk, wolverin, and badger. 5. The bear family, with flatfooted (plantigrade) extremities,--the bear, raccoon, etc. For carnivorous plants, see VENUS' FLYTRAP; PITCHER PLANT ; SUNDEW; etc.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a principal division of the flesh-eating ing Mammalia. The name is given to those animals, including the feline, canine, and ursine families, which have their teeth peculiarly fitted for the mastication of animal matter. The clavicles are rudimentary, or wanting. They are divided into two great groups, or sub-orders, one terrestrial, the other aquatic. The first is the group of the Fissipedia, or "split-feet," so called from the fact that their feet are divided into well-marked toes; the second is the group of Pinnipedia, or "fin-feet" (seals, etc.), so called because the toes are bound together by skin-forming fins or flappers rather than feet. Another classification is into three sections or tribes (1) Pinnigrada, or Pinnipedia, examples, the Seals and Walruses; (2) Plantigrada, example, the Bear, and (3) Digitigrada, examples, the Cat and the D
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts split Carnivora into land animals and sea animals as if they were equal halves /— Collier's 1921 "Fissipedia" (split-feet) against "Pinnipedia" (fin-feet). Molecular and anatomical work through the later 20th century dismantled that: Fissipedia was abandoned as an artificial grouping, and seals, sea lions and walruses are now placed inside the dog-side branch of the order, close to bears and weasels, so that Aiton's 1910 image of them as "otters with legs changed into swimming flippers" reads better than its classification did. The order is now divided instead into Feliformia (cat-like) and Caniformia (dog-like), which moves the hyenas away from the dogs and in beside the civets and mongooses — the opposite of Aiton's ordering. Aiton's five land families have also multiplied to roughly sixteen: raccoons left the bear family for Procyonidae, mongooses were split from the civets, and the giant panda was confirmed a bear while the red panda got a family of its own.
Written for this edition, 2026.