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Aug 9, 2024 · A large, short-limbed cat that lived in North and South America during the Pleistocene Epoch, it was about the size of the modern African lion (Panthera leo) and represents the peak of sabre-tooth evolution.
It had a reduced lumbar region, high scapula, short tail, and broad limbs with relatively short feet. [25][26] Smilodon is most famous for its relatively long canine teeth, which are the longest found in the saber-toothed cats, at about 28 cm (11 in) long in the largest species, S.populator. [25]
May 8, 2021 · Using detailed fossil comparison techniques, scientists have been able to identify a giant new saber-toothed cat species, Machairodus lahayishupup, which would have prowled around the open spaces of North America between 5 and 9 million years ago.
May 3, 2021 · A giant saber-toothed cat lived in North America between 5 million and 9 million years ago, weighing up to 900 pounds and hunting prey that likely weighed 1,000 to 2,000 pounds, scientists ...
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Hundreds of teeth pulled from the La Brea tar pits in California are revising our image of this icon of the Ice Age.
Until about 10,000 years ago, the saber-tooth cat Smilodon fatalis was a fearsome predator in what is now the American West. More than 3,000 fossilized cats have been pulled from the acrid ooze of the La Brea tar pits in California, and researchers studying them have long pictured Smilodon as a lion-like hunter, chasing bison and horses out on open grasslands.
But now, analyses of hundreds of teeth from La Brea are painting a vastly different picture of this prehistoric terror, which could weigh up to 600 pounds and sported seven-inch-long canine teeth.
“The iconic images you see of saber-tooth cats taking down bison, that’s actually not supported at all,” says study leader Larisa DeSantis, a paleontologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. The research, published today in the journal Current Biology, provides evidence that Smilodon may instead have been a forest dweller that primarily feasted on leaf-browsing creatures.
“[They] were more likely to be taking things like tapirs and deer, as opposed to horses and bison,” DeSantis says.
Her team’s comprehensive study also helps to explain why smaller predators such as coyotes and grey wolves were able to survive to the modern day, while larger carnivores such as saber-tooth cats, dire wolves, and American lions all went extinct 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. (Also find out about a type of saber-tooth cat that may have encountered the first humans migrating into Europe.)
The scientists studied more than 700 fossil teeth collected from La Brea that once belonged to various herbivores as well as saber-tooth cats, American lions, dire wolves, cougars, coyotes, and grey wolves. The team looked at both microscopic patterns of wear, which give an indication of the types of foodstuffs the creatures were chewing on, as well as the proportions of two carbon isotopes within the tooth enamel.
These two slight variants of the carbon atom build up in plants at different rates within forested versus open environments. Herbivores that eat those plants then carry a chemical clue to their preferred habitats within their bodies, something that gets carried over into any carnivores that prey upon them. This means that the remains of carnivores can reveal whether they were eating prey that lived in forested or more open habitats.
The cats and dogs partition out what they are doing.
ByLarisa DeSantisVanderbilt University
Previous studies had looked at the proportion of carbon and nitrogen isotopes in the remains of a protein called collagen found in the bones of predators at La Brea. Those papers came to the conclusion that the largest of the predators—including Smilodon, dire wolves, and American lions—were all likely hunting in open environments.
“All of the data up until this point showed they were competing for similar prey,” DeSantis says. Some experts therefore proposed that this rivalry for resources may have contributed to their extinction. But using tooth enamel is now regarded as the “gold standard” for these kinds of isotope tests, DeSantis says.
The results suggest there was actually much less competition for prey among the region’s largest Pleistocene carnivores, particularly between the saber-tooth cats and dire wolves.
The new study is significant “because it is the first paper to show that Smilodon and dire wolves were really doing something different in terms of prey choices,” Meachen says. “It makes sense that Smilodon would hunt in a more closed environment, considering they likely did not chase prey for any appreciable distance. They were ambush predators, based on their body morphology.”
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A male African lion, Panthera leo, poses for the camera. A lion's roar can be heard up to 5 miles away.
A male African lion, Panthera leo, poses for the camera. A lion's roar can be heard up to 5 miles away.
Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Geographic Photo Ark
The paper “adds to our understanding of who Smilodon fatalis was and where it preferred to hang out,” adds paleontologist Christopher Shaw, an affiliate curator at the Idaho Museum of Natural History and a former collections manager at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum. Other evidence suggests Smilodon were eating bison some of the time at La Brea, he says, but this may not be as contradictory as it seems.
A saber-toothed cat, larger than the biggest tigers alive today, lived in North America between 5 - 9 million years ago, and used its massive forearms for hunting prey such as bison and...
Mar 24, 2019 · Sergio de la Rosa. Fossils of S. fatalis, the second largest of three Smilodon species that roamed the Americas during the Pleistocene Epoch, have been found across the United States and in...
