The Carnivons were exterminated by the Lyrans and Kzintis about Y110. This data applies before that date.

The Carnivon race was often described as "wolf-like," but they were in fact genetically related to the Kzintis and Lyrans and all three apparently descended from some ancestral race. Curiously, the felinoid races (descended from solitary hunters) were able to create fairly unified stellar empires, while the Carnivons (descended from pack hunters) were a species rather than a nation.

Carnivons stood about 4 feet tall and massed about 120 pounds, and were covered with coarse fur that ranged from black to gray to brown. Carnivons walked erect and had opposable thumbs, just as their felinoid cousins do. Carnivons reached physical maturity within a year, but were regarded as juveniles until their hormones balanced at three years old. Carnivons were regarded as too old to fight by their 25th birthday and few survived into their 30s.

There was no such thing as a Carnivon government. There were, at any given time, from a dozen to two dozen Hordes (each of millions of members) subdivided into Packs. Each Pack was a feudal state, with its own ships, colonies, and interests. Some were autocratic, some democratic, and others had familial structures. Packs (and even Hordes) were known to divide or merge, sometimes violently. Warlords tried to unify the Hordes but none succeeded in merging more than a few, and none of the mergers survived the warlord. There was no single "home planet" for Carnivons.

The only thing the Lyrans and the Kzintis ever agreed upon was their hatred of the Carnivons, who hated them in return. The felinoid races destroyed all of the Carnivon worlds and inhabitants they could find by Y110. Rumors that Carnivons survive in remote areas are unconfirmed.