Tag Archive for 'Saber-toothed tiger'

Graphic showing functional optimality drives repeated evolution of extreme saber-tooth forms. Image credit: Tahlia Pollock.

Study: Saber-Toothed Predators’ Teeth were Highly Effective at Puncturing Prey

Jan 9, 2025 by News Staff

Saber-toothed predators — such as the famous saber-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis — evolved multiple times across different mammal groups. Their...

Felidae, a highly diverse carnivoran family, emerged during the Oligocene in Eurasia and quickly spread worldwide during the Miocene. Although Felidae represents the sole extant cat-like clade, the sabertoothed morphotype is a textbook example of iterative evolution, having evolved many times among placentals, marsupials, and gorgonopsians. Nimravidae is a well-diversified yet fully extinct carnivoran clade that extensively explored a range of cat-like morphologies, and although they have been commonly called ‘false cats’ or ‘false sabertooth cats’ in opposition to the ‘true cats,’ they evolved cat-like morphologies, including both saber-toothed and non-saber-toothed forms, tens of millions of years prior to the appearance of felids. Image credit: Narimane Chatar / Université de Liège.

New Study Uncovers Secrets of Saber-Tooth Evolution

May 21, 2024 by News Staff

Paleontologists from the University of Liège and elsewhere have investigated the evolutionary patterns behind the development of saber teeth in two groups...

The canine of saber-toothed predators represents one of the most specialized dental structures known. Hypotheses about the function of hypertrophied canines range from display and conspecific interaction, soft food processing, to active prey acquisition. Recent research on the ontogenetic timing of skull traits indicates the adult canine can take years to fully erupt, but the consequences of prolonged eruption on inferences of canine functional morphology are missing from current discourse and have not been quantified. In his new study, Tseng evaluates hypotheses about adult canine bending strength and stiffness, respectively, during eruption in Smilodon fatalis. Image credit: Massimo Molinero.

Saber-Toothed Tigers Held onto Their Milk Teeth to Stabilize Their Sabers, Study Suggests

May 1, 2024 by News Staff

A new analysis of the distinctive canines of the saber-toothed tiger (Smilodon fatalis) suggests that the baby tooth — one of the deciduous teeth...

Smilodon fatalis. Image credit: Adam Hartstone-Rose.

Could Saber-Toothed Cats and American Lions Roar?

Aug 22, 2023 by News Staff

The American lion (Panthera atrox) may have roared, while the saber-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis may have produced vocalizations similar to living purring...

A detail from the 1988 Mark Hallett mural, ‘Trapped in Time,’ depicting saber-toothed cats digging into prey. Image credit: La Brea Tar Pits.

Saber-Toothed Cats were Social Animals, New Study Suggests

Nov 1, 2021 by News Staff

A team of researchers has reconstructed and analyzed the external and internal bone morphology of a deformed hip bone from Smilodon fatalis, one of the...

An artist’s impression of Smilodon fatalis. Image credit: Sergio De la Rosa / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Saber-Toothed Tigers Had Unique Growth Strategy among Big Cats

Jan 8, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists from the Royal Ontario Museum and the University of Toronto have found and examined the fossilized remains of two subadult and one adult...