Saber-toothed predator

A saber-tooth (alternatively spelled sabre-tooth) is any member of various extinct groups of predatory therapsids, predominantly carnivoran mammals, that are characterized by long, curved saber-shaped canine teeth which protruded from the mouth when closed.

Among the earliest animals that can be described as "sabertooths" are the gorgonopsids, a group of non-mammalian therapsids that lived during the Middle-Late Permian, around 270-252 million years ago (mya).[1] Saber-toothed mammals have been found almost worldwide from the Eocene epoch to the end of the Pleistocene epoch (42 million years ago – 11,000 years ago).[2][3][4]

One of the best-known genera is the "saber-toothed cat" Smilodon, the species of which, especially S. fatalis, are popularly referred to as "saber-toothed tigers", although they are not closely related to tigers (Panthera), and are instead members of the extinct cat subfamily Machairodontinae (the true saber-toothed cats), most members of which had saber-teeth of varying lengths. Despite some similarities, not all saber-tooths are closely related to saber-toothed cats or felids in-general. For example, many members are classified into different family of Feliformia, the Nimravidae;[5] or from a separate order such as Machaeroides and Apataelurus, which are members of the order Oxyaenodonta, and two extinct lineages of metatherian mammals (related to marsupials), including the thylacosmilids of Sparassodonta. In this regard, these saber-toothed mammals can be viewed as examples of convergent evolution.[6] This convergence is remarkable due not only to the development of elongated canines, but also a suite of other characteristics, such as a wide gape and bulky forelimbs, which is so consistent that it has been termed the "saber-tooth suite."[7]

Of the feliform lineages, the family Nimravidae is the oldest, entering the landscape around 42 mya and becoming extinct by 7 mya.[8] Both machairodonts and nimravids (specifically Barbourofelinae) would have shared some habitats.[9][10][11][12]

Evolution

The different groups of saber-toothed predators evolved their saber-toothed characteristics entirely independently. They are most known for having maxillary canines which extended down from the mouth when the mouth was closed.[13][14]

The first saber-tooths to appear were non-mammalian synapsids, such as the gorgonopsians; they were one of the first groups of animals within Synapsida to experience the specialization of saber teeth, and many had long canines.[14] The oldest definitive worldwide gorgonopsian fossil was found in Port des Canonge Formation of Mallorca in the western Mediterranean dating to at least the earliest Wordian.[15] During the Middle Permian, gorgonopsians were subordinate to the dinocephalians, another clade of therapsids,[16] with the exception of Phorcys, who was probably the top predator in its assemblage.[17] Dinocephalians would later go extinct during the Capitanian mass extinction event.[16] Following their extinction, gorgonopsians occupied niches left vacant by increasing in size and becoming top predators.[18][1][19] Gorgonopsians disappeared in the Late Lopingian during the Permian–Triassic extinction event, mainly due to volcanic activities that originated in the Siberian Traps. The resulting eruption caused a significant climatic disruption unfavorable to their survival, leading to their extinction. Their ecological niches gave way to modern terrestrial ecosystems including sauropsids, mostly archosaurs, and among the few therapsids surviving the event, mammals.[20]

The second instance of saber-teeth is from machaeroidines of the extinct order Oxyaenodonta. The earliest known machaeroidine was Machaeroides simpsoni, which first appeared in the early Eocene. The last macheroidines died out in the middle Eocene, which was linked to the significant faunal overturn during the transition period between the middle and late Eocene.[21] Some experts hypothesized that their extinction was the result of competition with nimravids,[21] other experts found no evidence of competitive displacement,[22][23] as the excellent North American fossil record indicates oxyaenids were declining before the appearance of the replacement taxa such as nimravids.[22] In addition, the youngest records of machaeroidines predate the oldest records of nimravids.[21][24]

Instead, their extinction was likely due to the changing climate.[23][22] During the last 10 million years of the Eocene (43 to 33 Ma), the planet transitioned from a warm moist tropical world to a cooler, seasonally arid one.[22] Because of their low mobility, as well as preference for closed habitats, oxyaenids couldn’t adapt to the more open, temperate forests.[23][21]

The third saber-tooth appearance is the ancient feliform (carnivoran) family Nimravidae, which also includes barbourofelines.[25][26][27] The oldest known nimravid was found in the Lushi and Dongjun formations of China, which dated to the middle Eocene. The next oldest nimravid was Maofelis middle of the Eocene epoch, about 41.03 Ma.[28] The earliest record of nimravids in North America was represented by Pangurban, which first appeared around 40 Ma.[29] The diversification of the early nimravids was likely the result of the decline and extinction of oxyaenids, which opened the niche of felid-like carnivore niche.[30] Nimravids made their first appearance in Europe during the early Oligocene.[31]

The family saw a decline in diversity in both Europe and North America, both corresponding with the increase in aridity, and in the case of North American nimravids, competition with amphicyonids.[32][33][34] The extinction of North American nimravids started the infamous cat gap, a 7 million year period when no cat-like predators were present in North America.[35] Barbourofelines probably evolved from Nimravinae dispersing into Africa during the early Miocene. The presence of large hyaenodonts prevented them from reaching a large size but were able to carve a niche due to their dental morphology. Eventually, they dispersed from Africa into Eurasia and later into North America. The last barbourofelines would go extinct around 7 Ma.[36] Some experts hypothesized the cause of their extinction was the result of competition with machairodonts.[37][35] Other experts suggested it was more likely they went extinct due to the expansion of grasslands and the decline of favorable prey such as antilocaprids, camelids, dromomerycids, and equids.[38][39][36]

The fourth appearance of saberteeth was Thylacosmilidae. They were part of an order of metatherian mammals known as sparassodonts. The earliest known thylacosmilid fossil was dated to around 21 Ma.[40] The last member of the family Thylacosmilus, went extinct during the Pliocene, around 3 Ma.[41] Originally, it was hypothesized that Thylacosmilus was outcompeted by carnivorans such as Smilodon.[42] Although more recent evidence found no evidence of temporal or niche overlap between the two predators,[41][43] instead extinction of Thylacosmilus and other sparassodonts was the result of the environmental changes.[41]

The fifth and last saber-toothed group to evolve were the machairodonts themselves. Mitochondrial DNA found that machairodonts split off from ancestors of living cats around 20 Ma, with Homotherium and Smilodon diverging from one another around 18 Ma.[44] Machairodonts began to decline during late Miocene, with the decline of North American machairodonts coinciding with the decline of horses.[45] This decline would persist into the Pleistocene,[45] the cause of their decline in the Plio-Plestocene has been debated by experts. In Africa, many experts hypothesized that their decline and extinction was the result of competition with hominids.[46][47][48] In Europe, the extinction of Megantereon coincidied with the expansion of grasslands, while Homotherium went extinct because of competition with archaic humans and Panthera fossilis.[49][50][51] Homotherium and Smilodon were the last known members of the subfamily by the Late Pleistocene. These two genera became extinct around 13,000-10,000 years ago as part of the wave of extinctions of most large animals across the Americas.[44][52]

Morphology

Some gorgonopsians had two pairs of upper canines with two jutting down from each side, but most had one pair of upper extreme canines. Because of their primitiveness, they are extremely easy to tell from machairodonts. Several defining characteristics are a lack of a coronoid process, many sharp "premolars" more akin to pegs than scissors, and very long skulls. Despite their large canines, however, most gorgonopsians probably lacked the other specializations found in true saber-toothed predator ecomorphs.[1] Two gorgonopsians, Smilesaurus and Inostrancevia, had exceptionally large canines and may have been closer functional analogues to later sabertooths.[1]

Some machairodonts, such as Megantereon and Smilodon, were more robust than modern day felids.[53][54]

Diet

Large gorgonopsians, such as Inostrancevia, were thought to have hunted large contemporary tetrapods,[55][56] such as dicynodonts and pareiasaurs.[56][57]

Paleobiology

Predatory behavior

It was initially hypothesized that sabertooth predators were more adapted for hunting relatively larger prey.[58][59][60][61] In the case of large sabertooth predators, such as Barbourofelis[59] and Smilodon,[60] were thought to have been specialized on hunting on megaherbivores.

However, this hypothesis has been questioned by experts.[62][63][64] Andersson et al. (2011) found that for saber-tooth cats, the depth of the killing bite decreases dramatically with increasing prey size. The extended gape of saber-toothed cats results in a considerable increase in bite depth when biting into prey with a radius of less than 10 cm. For the saber-tooth, this size-reversed functional advantage suggests predation on species within a similar size range to those attacked by present-day carnivorans, rather than megaherbivores as previously believed.[62]

Antón (2013) pointed out that the prey of the large gorgonopsians were smaller than them, not ten times larger. Additionally, given their large sizes, they weren’t the most abundant potential prey in most of their ecosystems. In comparison, medium-sized prey, such as ungulates (e.g. bovids and horses), were more plentiful and were the more ideal prey for sabertooth predators.[64]

Lautenschlager et al. (2020) found that the effective jaw gape in most sabertooths was restricted between 45° and 65°, furthermore proving not all sabertooths were large prey specialists. Their analysis found majority of gorgonopsians had a jaw gape below 80° and effective jaw gape below 60°, suggesting a specialization towards smaller prey instead of larger prey. On the other hand, nimravids generally showed high jaw gapes, with majority of taxa wide jaw gape of over 90°, combined with little bending strength values over time suggests they have an intermediate killing strategy towards large prey.[63]

A disputing view of the cat's hunting technique and ability is presented by C. K. Brain in The Hunters or the Hunted?, in which he attributes the cat's prey-killing abilities to its large neck muscles rather than its jaws.[65] Large cats use both the upper and lower jaw to bite down and bring down the prey. The strong bite of the jaw is accredited to the strong temporalis muscle that attach from the skull to the coronoid process of the jaw. The larger the coronoid process, the larger the muscle that attaches there, so the stronger the bite. As C.K. Brain points out, the saber-toothed cats had a greatly reduced coronoid process and therefore a disadvantageously weak bite. The cat did, however, have an enlarged mastoid process, a muscle attachment at the base of the skull, which attaches to neck muscles. According to C.K. Brain, the saber-tooth would use a "downward thrust of the head, powered by the neck muscles" to drive the large upper canines into the prey. This technique was "more efficient than those of true cats".[65]

The similarity in all these unrelated families involves the convergent evolution of the saber-like canines as a hunting adaptation. Meehan et al.[66] note that it took around 8 million years for a new type of saber-toothed cat to fill the niche of an extinct predecessor in a similar ecological role; this has happened at least four times with different families of animals developing this adaptation. Although the adaptation of the saber-like canines made these creatures successful, it seems that the shift to obligate carnivorism, along with co-evolution with large prey animals, led the saber-toothed cats of each time period to extinction. As per Van Valkenburgh, the adaptations that made saber-toothed cats successful also made the creatures vulnerable to extinction. In her example, trends toward an increase in size, along with greater specialization, acted as a "macro-evolutionary ratchet": when large prey became scarce or extinct, these creatures would be unable to adapt to smaller prey or consume other sources of food, and would be unable to reduce their size so as to need less food.[67]

More recently, it has been suggested that Thylacosmilus differed radically from its placental counterparts in possessing differently shaped canines and lacking incisors. This suggests that it was not ecologically analogous to other saber-teeth and possibly an entrail specialist.[68] Another study has found that other saber toothed species similarly had diverse lifestyles and that superficial anatomical similarities obscure them.[69]

Social behavior

Several sabertooth predators, such as Megantereon and Promegantereon, were thought to have been solitary predators.[70][71] However, some sabertooth predators have been speculated to have been social predators. Based on the ratio of juveniles to adults found at the La Brea Tar Pits, it has been suggested that Smilodon, like modern lions, was a social carnivore.[72] Amphimachairodus hezhengensis was believed to have been gregarious due to its adaptation of living in open environments such as stereo vision, which would've aided in prey identification and cooperative hunting. Additionally, evidence of healed pathological forepaw suggests evidence of partner care, and the abundant of large carnivorans present in Linxia Basin, which likely prove the rapid morphological evolution and gregariousness.[73] Pathological analysis also found that Machairodus aphanistus was likely gregarious with males forming coalitions of at least two individuals.[74] Homotherium was thought to have been a gregarious animal based on its anatomy, as well as fossil and genetic evidence.[75][76][77]

Phylogeny of feliform saber-tooths

Saber-tooth taxonomy

All saber-toothed mammals lived between 33.7 million and 9,000 years ago, but the evolutionary lines that led to the various saber-tooth genera started to diverge much earlier. It is thus a polyphyletic grouping.

The lineage that led to Thylacosmilus was the first to split off, in the late Cretaceous. It is a metatherian, and thus more closely related to kangaroos and opossums than the felines. Followed by Oxyaenids, and then the nimravids, before the diversification of the truly feline saber-tooths.


References

  1. ^ a b c d Kammerer, Christian F. (2016-01-26). "Systematics of the Rubidgeinae (Therapsida: Gorgonopsia)". PeerJ. 4 e1608. doi:10.7717/peerj.1608. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 4730894. PMID 26823998. S2CID 35831378.
  2. ^ "PaleoBiology Database: Smilodon, basic info". Paleodb.org. Retrieved 2012-09-06.
  3. ^ "PaleoBiology Database: Nimravidae, basic info". Paleodb.org. Retrieved 2012-09-06.
  4. ^ "PaleoBiology Database: Barbourofelidae, basic info". Paleodb.org. Retrieved 2012-09-06.
  5. ^ Barrett, P. Z.; Hopkins, W. S. B.; Price, S. A. (2021). "How many sabertooths? Reevaluating the number of carnivoran sabertooth lineages with total-evidence Bayesian techniques and a novel origin of the Miocene Nimravidae". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 41 (1) e1923523. Bibcode:2021JVPal..41E3523B. doi:10.1080/02724634.2021.1923523. S2CID 236221655.
  6. ^ Antón, Mauricio (2013). Sabertooth (Life of the Past). Indiana University Press.
  7. ^ Meachen-Samuels, Julie A. (2012). "Morphological convergence of the prey-killing arsenal of sabertooth predators". Paleobiology. 38 (1): 1–14. doi:10.1666/10036.1. S2CID 86749260.
  8. ^ Barret, Paul (October 26, 2021). "The largest hoplophonine and a complex new hypothesis of nimravid evolution". Nature. 11 (1) 21078. Bibcode:2021NatSR..1121078B. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-00521-1. PMC 8548586. PMID 34702935.
  9. ^ Webb, S. D.; MacFadden, B. J.; Baskin, Jon (1981). "Geology and paleontology of the Love Bone Bed from the late Miocene of Florida". American Journal of Science. 281 (5): 513–544. Bibcode:1981AmJS..281..513W. doi:10.2475/ajs.281.5.513.
  10. ^ Baskin, Jon (December 2005). "Carnivora from the Late Miocene Love Bone Bed of Florida". Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History. 45 (4): 413–434. doi:10.58782/flmnh.oveu6772.
  11. ^ Domingo, Laura; Domingo, M. Soledad; Koch, Paul L.; Alberdi, M. Teresa (May 10, 2017). "Carnivoran resource and habitat use in the context of a Late Miocene faunal turnover episode". Palaeontology. 60 (4): 461–483. Bibcode:2017Palgy..60..461D. doi:10.1111/pala.12296.
  12. ^ Jiangzuo, Q; Werdelin, L; Sanisidro, O; Yang, Rong; Fu, Jiao; Li, Shijie; Wang, Shiqi; Deng, Tao (April 2023). "Origin of adaptations to openenvironments and social behaviour insabretoothed cats from the northeasternborder of the Tibetan Plateau". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 290 (1997): 7–8. doi:10.1098/rspb.2023.0019. PMC 10113030. PMID 37072045. S2CID 20230019.
  13. ^ Meehan, T. J.; Martin, L. D. (2003). "Extinction and re-evolution of similar adaptive types (ecomorphs) in Cenozoic North American ungulates and carnivores reflect van der Hammen's cycles". Die Naturwissenschaften. 90 (3): 131–135. Bibcode:2003NW.....90..131M. doi:10.1007/s00114-002-0392-1. PMID 12649755. S2CID 21117744.
  14. ^ a b Antón, Mauricio (2013). Sabertooth. Bloomington, Indiana: University of Indiana Press. p. 3-26. ISBN 978-0-253-01042-1.
  15. ^ Matamales-Andreu, Rafel; Kammerer, Christian F.; Angielczyk, Kenneth D.; Simões, Tiago R.; Mujal, Eudald; Galobart, Àngel; Fortuny, Josep (2024-12-17). "Early–middle Permian Mediterranean gorgonopsian suggests an equatorial origin of therapsids". Nature Communications. 15 (1). 10346. Bibcode:2024NatCo..1510346M. doi:10.1038/s41467-024-54425-5. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 11652623. PMID 39690157.
  16. ^ a b Day, Michael O.; Ramezani, Jahandar; Bowring, Samuel A.; Sadler, Peter M.; Erwin, Douglas H.; Abdala, Fernando; and Rubidge, Bruce S. (2015). "When and how did the terrestrial mid-Permian mass extinction occur? Evidence from the tetrapod record of the Karoo Basin, South Africa". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 282 (1811) 20150834. Bibcode:2015RSPSB.28250834D. doi:10.1098/rspb.2015.0834. PMC 4528552. PMID 26156768.
  17. ^ Kammerer, Christian F.; Rubidge, Bruce S. (2022). "The earliest gorgonopsians from the Karoo Basin of South Africa". Journal of African Earth Sciences. 194 104631. Bibcode:2022JAfES.19404631K. doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2022.104631. S2CID 249977414.
  18. ^ Bendel, Eva-Maria; Kammerer, Christian F.; Kardjilov, Nikolay; Fernandez, Vincent; Fröbisch, Jörg (2018). "Cranial anatomy of the gorgonopsian Cynariops robustus based on CT-reconstruction". PLOS ONE. 13 (11) e0207367. Bibcode:2018PLoSO..1307367B. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0207367. PMC 6261584. PMID 30485338.
  19. ^ Kammerer, Christian F. & Masyutin, Vladimir (2018). "Gorgonopsian therapsids (Nochnitsa gen. nov. and Viatkogorgon) from the Permian Kotelnich locality of Russia". PeerJ. 6 e4954. doi:10.7717/peerj.4954. PMC 5995105. PMID 29900078.
  20. ^ Benton, Michael J. (2018). "Hyperthermal-driven mass extinctions: killing models during the Permian–Triassic mass extinction". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. 376 (2130). Bibcode:2018RSPTA.37670076B. doi:10.1098/rsta.2017.0076. PMC 6127390. PMID 30177561.
  21. ^ a b c d Zack, Shawn P.; Poust, Ashley W.; Wagner, Hugh (2022-03-15). "Diegoaelurus, a new machaeroidine (Oxyaenidae) from the Santiago Formation (late Uintan) of southern California and the relationships of Machaeroidinae, the oldest group of sabertooth mammals". PeerJ. 10 e13032. doi:10.7717/peerj.13032. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 8932314. PMID 35310159.
  22. ^ a b c d Van, Valkenburgh B. (1999). "Major patterns in the history of carnivorous mammals". Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences. 27: 463–493. Bibcode:1999AREPS..27..463V. doi:10.1146/annurev.earth.27.1.463.
  23. ^ a b c Kort, Anne E. (2019). "The Paleoecology of Patriofelis ulta and Implications for Oxyaenid Extinction (thesis)". Indiana University.
  24. ^ Poust, Ashley; Barrett, Paul Z.; Tomiya, Susumu (2022). "An early nimravid from California and the rise of hypercarnivorous mammals after the middle Eocene climatic optimum". Biology Letters. 18 (10): 333–347. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2022.0291. hdl:2433/276689. PMC 9554728. S2CID 252818430.
  25. ^ Tseng, Z. Jack; Takeuchi, Gary T.; Wang, Xiaoming (January 2010). "Discovery of the Upper Dentitle of Barbourofelis whitfordi (Nimravidae, Carnivora) and an Evaluation of the Genus in California". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 30 (1): 244–254. Bibcode:2010JVPal..30..244T. doi:10.1080/02724630903416001.
  26. ^ Wang, Xiaoming; White, Stuart C.; Guan, Jian (2 May 2020). "A new genus and species of sabretooth, Oriensmilus liupanensis (Barbourofelinae, Nimravidae, Carnivora), from the middle Miocene of China suggests barbourofelines are nimravids, not felids". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 18 (9): 783–803. Bibcode:2020JSPal..18..783W. doi:10.1080/14772019.2019.1691066. S2CID 211545222.
  27. ^ Werdelin, Lars (November 2021). "African Barbourofelinae (Mammalia, Nimravidae): a critical review". Historical Biology. 34 (2): 1347–1355. doi:10.1080/08912963.2021.1998034.
  28. ^ Averianov, Alexander; Obraztsova, Ekaterina; Danilov, Igor; Skutschas, Pavel; Jin, Jianhua (2016). "First nimravid skull from Asia". Scientific Reports. 6 25812. Bibcode:2016NatSR...625812A. doi:10.1038/srep25812. PMC 4861911. PMID 27161785.
  29. ^ Poust, Ashley; Barrett, Paul Z.; Tomiya, Susumu (2022). "An early nimravid from California and the rise of hypercarnivorous mammals after the middle Eocene climatic optimum". Biology Letters. 18 (10): 333–347. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2022.0291. hdl:2433/276689. PMC 9554728. S2CID 252818430.
  30. ^ Jiangzuo, Qigao; Lyras, Georgios; Grohe, Camille; Werdelin, Lars; Niu, Kecheng; Huang, Dongting; Li, Shijie; Jiang, Hao; Fu, Jiao; Wan, Yang; Liu, Jinyi; Wang, Shi-Qi; Deng, Tao (November 2025). "A new ecomorph of Nimravidae, and the early macrocarnivorous niche exploration in Carnivora". Proceedings. Biological Sciences. 292 (2059) 20251686. doi:10.1098/rspb.2025.1686. ISSN 1471-2954. PMC 12646760. PMID 41290163.
  31. ^ Solé, Floréal; Fischer, Valentin; Le Verger, Kévin; Mennecart, Bastien; Speijer, Robert P.; Peigné, Stéphane; Smith, Thierry (2022). "Evolution of European carnivorous mammal assemblages through the Paleogene". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 135 (4): 734–753. doi:10.1093/biolinnean/blac002.
  32. ^ Castellanos, Miguel (2025). "Hunting types in North American Eocene–Oligocene carnivores and implications for the 'cat-gap'". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 32 (2): 1–12. doi:10.1007/s10914-025-09767-2.
  33. ^ Antón, Mauricio (2013). Sabertooth. Bloomington, Indiana: University of Indiana Press. p. 219-220. ISBN 978-0-253-01042-1.
  34. ^ Solé, Floréal; Fischer, Valentin; Le Verger, Kévin; Mennecart, Bastien; Speijer, Robert P.; Peigné, Stéphane; Smith, Thierry (2022). "Evolution of European carnivorous mammal assemblages through the Paleogene". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 135 (4): 734–753. doi:10.1093/biolinnean/blac002.
  35. ^ a b Antón, Mauricio (2013). Sabertooth. Bloomington, Indiana: University of Indiana Press. p. 220. ISBN 978-0-253-01042-1.
  36. ^ a b Barret, Paul (October 26, 2021). "The largest hoplophonine and a complex new hypothesis of nimravid evolution". nature. 11 (1). doi:10.1038/s41598-021-00521-1. PMC 8548586.
  37. ^ Domingo, Laura; Domingo, M. Soledad; Koch, Paul L.; Alberdi, M. Teresa (May 10, 2017). "Carnivoran resource and habitat use in the context of a Late Miocene faunal turnover episode". Palaeontology. 60 (4): 461–483. Bibcode:2017Palgy..60..461D. doi:10.1111/pala.12296.
  38. ^ Jiangzuo, Qigao; Li, Shijie; Deng, Tao (2022). "Parallelism and lineage replacement of the late Miocene scimitar-toothed cats from the old and New World" (PDF). iScience. 25 (12) 105637. Bibcode:2022iSci...25j5637J. doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.105637. PMC 9730133. PMID 36505925.
  39. ^ Michael Morlo (2006). "New remains of Barbourofelidae from the Miocene of Southern Germany: implications for the history of barbourid migrations". Beiträge zur Paläontologie, Wien. 30: 339–346.
  40. ^ Paleobiology Database: Thylacosmilidae
  41. ^ a b c Prevosti, Francisco J.; Forasiepi, Analía; Zimicz, Natalia (5 November 2011). "The Evolution of the Cenozoic Terrestrial Mammalian Predator Guild in South America: Competition or Replacement?". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 20 (1): 3–21. doi:10.1007/s10914-011-9175-9. hdl:11336/2663. S2CID 15751319.
  42. ^ Marshall, Larry G. (1988). "Land Mammals and the Great American Interchange". American Scientist. 76 (4): 380–388.
  43. ^ Freitas-Oliveira, Roniel; Lima-Ribeiro, Matheus S.; Terribile, Levi Carina (2024). "No evidence for niche competition in the extinction of the South American saber-tooth species". npj Biodiversity. 3 (1): 11. Bibcode:2024npjBD...3...11F. doi:10.1038/s44185-024-00045-7. PMC 11332042. PMID 39242707.
  44. ^ a b Paijmans, J. L. A.; Barnett, R.; Gilbert, M. T. P.; Zepeda-Mendoza, M. L.; Reumer, J. W. F.; de Vos, J.; Zazula, G.; Nagel, D.; Baryshnikov, G. F.; Leonard, J. A.; Rohland, N.; Westbury, M. V.; Barlow, A.; Hofreiter, M. (2017-10-19). "Evolutionary History of Saber-Toothed Cats Based on Ancient Mitogenomics". Current Biology. 27 (21): 3330–3336.e5. Bibcode:2017CBio...27E3330P. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.09.033. PMID 29056454.
  45. ^ a b Nascimento, João C S; Pires, Mathias M (2025-07-21). Gonzalez-Voyer, Alejandro; Carazo, Pau (eds.). "Variation in prey availability over time shaped the extinction dynamics of sabre-toothed cats". Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 38 (6): 758–768. doi:10.1093/jeb/voaf043. ISSN 1420-9101. PMID 40244803.
  46. ^ Faurby, Søren; Silvestro, Daniele; Werdelin, Lars; Antonelli, Alexandre (2020). "Brain expansion in early hominins predicts carnivore extinctions in East Africa". Ecology Letters. 23 (3): 537–544. doi:10.1111/ele.13451. PMC 7079157.
  47. ^ Antón, Mauricio (2013). Sabertooth. Bloomington, Indiana: University of Indiana Press. p. 226-228. ISBN 978-0-253-01042-1.
  48. ^ Antón, Mauricio (2013). Sabertooth. Bloomington, Indiana: University of Indiana Press. p. 226-228. ISBN 978-0-253-01042-1.
  49. ^ Anton, Mauricio; Galobart, A.; Turner, A. (May 2005). "Co-existence of scimitar-toothed cats, lions and hominins in the European Pleistocene. Implications of the post-cranial anatomy of (Owen) for comparative palaeoecology". Quaternary Science Reviews. 24 (10–11): 1287–1301. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2004.09.008.
  50. ^ Marciszak, Adrian Przemysław; Gornig, Wiktoria Marianna; Matyaszczyk, Lena; Demidziuk, Krzysztof; Kasprzak, Marek (19 July 2024). "Remains of Canidae and Felidae from Południowa Cave (Sudetes Mts, SW Poland)". Geological Quarterly. 68 (2): 1–22. doi:10.7306/gq.1751. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  51. ^ Marciszak, A.; Gornig, W. (2024). "From giant to dwarf: A trend of decreasing size in Panthera spelaea (Goldfuss, 1810) and its likely implications". Earth History and Biodiversity. 1 100007. doi:10.1016/j.hisbio.2024.100007.
  52. ^ DeSantis, L. R. G.; Schubert, B. W.; Scott, J. R.; Ungar, P. S. (2012). "Implications of diet for the extinction of saber-toothed cats and American lions". PLOS ONE. 7 (12) e52453. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...752453D. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0052453. PMC 3530457. PMID 23300674.
  53. ^ Turner, A.; Antón, M. (1997). The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives: An Illustrated Guide to Their Evolution and Natural History. Columbia University Press. pp. 57–58, 67–68. ISBN 978-0-231-10229-2. OCLC 34283113.
  54. ^ Christiansen, P.; Adolfseen, J. S. (2006). "Osteology and ecology of Megantereon cultridens SE311 (Mammalia; Felidae; Machairodontinae), a sabrecat from the Late Pliocene – Early Pleistocene of Senéze, France". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 151 (4): 833–884. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2007.00333.x.
  55. ^ Tverdokhlebov, Valentin P.; Tverdokhlebova, Galina I.; Minikh, Alla V.; Surkov, Mikhail V.; Benton, Michael J. (2005). "Upper Permian vertebrates and their sedimentological context in the South Urals, Russia" (PDF). Earth-Science Reviews. 69 (1–2): 27–77. Bibcode:2005ESRv...69...27T. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2004.07.003. S2CID 85512435.
  56. ^ a b Kammerer, Christian F.; Viglietti, Pia A.; Butler, Elize; Botha, Jennifer (2022). "Rapid turnover of top predators in African terrestrial faunas around the Permian-Triassic mass extinction". Current Biology. 33 (11): 2283–2290. Bibcode:2023JVPal..43E3622B. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2023.04.007. PMID 37220743. S2CID 258835757.
  57. ^ Ivakhnenko 2008b.
  58. ^ Meachen, J. A. (2012). "Morphological convergence of the prey-killing arsenal of sabertooth predators". Paleobiology. 38 (1): 1–14. doi:10.1666/10036.1. JSTOR 41432156.
  59. ^ a b Baskin, Jon (December 2005). "Carnivora from the Late Miocene Love Bone Bed of Florida". Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History. 45 (4): 413–434. doi:10.58782/flmnh.oveu6772.
  60. ^ a b Manzuetti, A.; Perea, D.; Jones, W.; Ubilla, M.; Rinderknecht, A. (2020). "An extremely large saber-tooth cat skull from Uruguay (late Pleistocene–early Holocene, Dolores Formation): body size and paleobiological implications". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. 44 (2): 332–339. Bibcode:2020Alch...44..332M. doi:10.1080/03115518.2019.1701080. S2CID 216505747.
  61. ^ Anton, Mauricio; Salesa, Manuel J.; Morales, Jorge; Turner, Alan (2004). "First known complete skulls of the scimitar-toothed cat Machairodus aphanistus (Felidae, Carnivora) from the Spanish late Miocene site of Batallones-1". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 24 (4): 957. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2004)024[0957:FKCSOT]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0272-4634.
  62. ^ a b Andersson, K.; Norman, D.; Werdelin, L. (2011). "Sabretoothed Carnivores and the Killing of Large Prey". PLOS ONE. 6 (10): 1–6. Bibcode:2011PLoSO...624971A. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024971. PMC 3198467. PMID 22039403.
  63. ^ a b Lautenschlager, Stephan; Figueirido, Borja; Cashmore, Daniel D.; Bendel, Eva-Maria; Stubbs, Thomas L. (2020). "Morphological convergence obscures functional diversity in sabre-toothed carnivores". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 287 (1935): 1–10. doi:10.1098/rspb.2020.1818. ISSN 1471-2954. PMC 7542828. PMID 32993469.
  64. ^ a b Antón, Mauricio (2013). Sabertooth. Bloomington, Indiana: University of Indiana Press. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-253-01042-1.
  65. ^ a b Brain, C. K. "Part 2: Fossil Assemblages from the Sterkfontein Valley Caves: Analysis and Interpretation." In: The Hunters or the Hunted?: An Introduction to African Cave Taphonomy. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1981. ISBN 0226070891
  66. ^ Meehan, T.J.; Martin, L.D. (2003). "Extinction and Re-Evolution of Similar Adaptive Types (Ecomorphs) in Cenozoic North American Ungulates and Carnivores Reflect van der Hammen's Cycles". Naturwissenschaften. 90 (3): 131–135. Bibcode:2003NW.....90..131M. doi:10.1007/s00114-002-0392-1. PMID 12649755. S2CID 21117744.
  67. ^ Van Valkenburgh, B. (2007). "Deja vu: the evolution of feeding morphologies in the Carnivora". Integrative and Comparative Biology. 47 (1): 147–163. doi:10.1093/icb/icm016. PMID 21672827.
  68. ^ Janis, Christine M.; Figueirido, Borja; DeSantis, Larisa; Lautenschlager, Stephan (2020). "An eye for a tooth: Thylacosmilus was not a marsupial "saber-tooth predator"". PeerJ. 8 e9346. doi:10.7717/peerj.9346. PMC 7323715. PMID 32617190.
  69. ^ Lautenschlager, Stephan; Figueirido, Borja; Cashmore, Daniel D.; Bendel, Eva-Maria; Stubbs, Thomas L. (2020). "Morphological convergence obscures functional diversity in sabre-toothed carnivores". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 287 (1935) 20201818. doi:10.1098/rspb.2020.1818. PMC 7542828. PMID 32993469.
  70. ^ Lewis, Margaret; Werdelin, Lars (2010). "Carnivoran Dispersal Out of Africa During the Early Pleistocene: Relevance for Hominins?" (PDF). Out of Africa I: The First Hominin Colonization of Eurasia. Springer Press. pp. 13–26. doi:10.1007/978-90-481-9036-2_2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  71. ^ Salesa, M. J.; Antón, Mauricio; Turner, A.; Morales, J. (21 February 2006). "Inferred behaviour and ecology of the primitive sabre-toothed cat Paramachairodus ogygia (Felidae, Machairodontinae) from the Late Miocene of Spain". Journal of Zoology. 268 (3): 243–254. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.2005.00032.x. ISSN 0952-8369. Retrieved 29 July 2025 – via Zoological Society of London.
  72. ^ Carbone, C.; Maddox, T.; Funston, P. J.; Mills, M. G.; Grether, G. F.; Van Valkenburgh, B. (2009). "Parallels between playbacks and Pleistocene tar seeps suggest sociality in an extinct sabretooth cat, Smilodon". Biol. Lett. 5 (1): 81–85. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2008.0526. PMC 2657756. PMID 18957359.
  73. ^ Jiangzuo, Q; Werdelin, L; Sanisidro, O; Yang, Rong; Fu, Jiao; Li, Shijie; Wang, Shiqi; Deng, Tao (April 2023). "Origin of adaptations to openenvironments and social behaviour insabretoothed cats from the northeasternborder of the Tibetan Plateau". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 290 (1997): 7–8. doi:10.1098/rspb.2023.0019. PMC 10113030. PMID 37072045. S2CID 20230019.
  74. ^ Salesa, Manuel J.; Hernández, Bárbara; Marín, Pilar; Siliceo, Gema; Martínez, Irene; Antón, Mauricio; García-Real, María Isabel; Pastor, Juan Francisco; García-Fernández, Rosa Ana (31 May 2024). "New insights on the ecology and behavior of Machairodus aphanistus (Carnivora, Felidae, Machairodontinae) through the paleopathological study of the fossil sample from the Late Miocene (Vallesian, MN 10) of Cerro de los Batallones (Torrejón de Velasco, Madrid, Spain)". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 31 (2). doi:10.1007/s10914-024-09721-8. hdl:10261/388411. ISSN 1064-7554.
  75. ^ Barnett, Ross; Westbury, Michael V.; Sandoval-Velasco, Marcela; Vieira, Filipe Garrett; Jeon, Sungwon; Zazula, Grant; Martin, Michael D.; Ho, Simon Y. W.; Mather, Niklas; Gopalakrishnan, Shyam; Ramos-Madrigal, Jazmín; Manuel, Marc de; Zepeda-Mendoza, M. Lisandra; Antunes, Agostinho; Baez, Aldo Carmona; Cahsan, Binia De; Larson, Greger; O'Brien, Stephen J.; Eizirik, Eduardo; Johnson, Warren E.; Koepfli, Klaus-Peter; Wilting, Andreas; Fickel, Jörns; Dalén, Love; Lorenzen, Eline D.; Marques-Bonet, Tomas; Hansen, Anders J.; Zhang, Guojie; Bhak, Jong; Yamaguchi, Nobuyuki; Gilbert, M. Thomas P. (21 December 2020). "Genomic Adaptations and Evolutionary History of the Extinct Scimitar-Toothed Cat, Homotherium latidens". Current Biology. 30 (24): 5018–5025.e5. Bibcode:2020CBio...30E5018B. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.09.051. PMC 7762822. PMID 33065008.
  76. ^ Antón, Mauricio (2022). "Behaviour of Homotherium in the Light of Modern African Big Cats". In Conard, N. J.; Hassmann, H.; Hillgruber, K. F.; Serangeli, J.; Terberger, H. (eds.). The Homotherium Finds from Schöningen 13II-4: Man and Big Cats of the Ice Age. Contributions of the scientific workshop at the paläon (Schöningen) from 05.06 to 07.06.2015. Heidelberg: Propylaeum. pp. 19–34. doi:10.11588/propylaeum.1006.c13519. ISBN 978-3-96929-136-8.
  77. ^ Graham, Russell W.; Lundelius, Ernest L.; Meissner, Laurence; Muhlestein, Keith (April 2013), "Friesenhahn Cave: Late Pleistocene paleoecology and predator-prey relationships of mammoths with an extinct scimitar cat", Late Cretaceous to Quaternary Strata and Fossils of Texas: Field Excursions Celebrating 125 Years of GSA and Texas Geology, GSA South-Central Section Meeting, Austin, Texas, April 2013, Geological Society of America, pp. 15–31, doi:10.1130/2013.0030(02), ISBN 978-0-8137-0030-4, retrieved 2025-09-07{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  78. ^ Piras, P; Maiorino, L; Teresi, L; Meloro, C; Lucci, F; Kotsakis, T; Raia, P (2013). "Bite of the cats: relationships between functional integration and mechanical performance as revealed by mandible geometry". Systematic Biology. 62 (6): 878–900. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syt053. hdl:11590/132981. PMID 23925509.
  79. ^ Piras P, Maiorino L, Teresi L, Meloro C, Lucci F, Kotsakis T, Raia P (2013) Data from: Bite of the cats: relationships between functional integration and mechanical performance as revealed by mandible geometry. Dryad Digital Repository. https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.kp8t3

Further reading

  • Mol, D., W. v. Logchem, K. v. Hooijdonk, R. Bakker. The Saber-Toothed Cat. DrukWare, Norg 2008. ISBN 978-90-78707-04-2.
  • Sardella, R. (10 March 2012). "Web of Knowledge (v5.6)". Soc Paleontologica Italiana. Archived from the original on 13 April 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2012.
  • Anton, Mauricio (2013). Sabertooth. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-01049-0.

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.