Three ways to be a saber-toothed cat.
Saber-toothed carnivores, until now, have been divided into two groups: scimitar-toothed cats with shorter, coarsely serrated canines coupled with long legs for fast running, and dirk-toothed cats with more elongate, finely serrated canines coupled to short legs built for power rather than speed. In the Pleistocene of North America, as in Europe, the scimitar-cat was Homotherium; the North American dirk-tooth was Smilodon. We now describe a new sabercat from the Early Pleistocene of Florida, combining the scimitar-tooth canine with the short, massive limbs of a dirk-tooth predator. This presents a third way to construct a saber-toothed carnivore.
Martin
L D
LD
Museum of Natural History and Department of Ecology and Systematics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA.
Babiarz
J P
JP
Naples
V L
VL
Hearst
J
J
D000818:Animals; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D002335:Carnivora / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification*; D003481:Cuspid / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005431:Florida; D010161:Paleodontology; D010163:Paleontology; D012886:Skull / Q000033:anatomy & histology