Smilodon fatalis

[Matias]

Says Matias:
An approach that relates the two species and could also be posted on the topic about American lions. It is an interesting study whose conclusion, although not definitive, raises many points in questions that previously seemed absolute truths, such as that "difficult times for the two big cats was a constant to obtain food in the late Pleistocene", among other implications and reflections to consider. There seems to be many specificities for the two large cats, and the extinctions of large carnivores in this temporal space are attributes of a greater understanding where spatial ecology needs to be well placed to measure the disorganization of the ecological dynamics that culminated in these extinctions. Although man is the new ecological factor, it seems to me still very complex, to measure its participation in the extinction of great carnivores, without exactly establishing its trophic impact.

Implications of Diet for the Extinction of Saber-Toothed Cats and American Lions

• Larisa R. G. DeSantis ,
• Blaine W. Schubert,
• Jessica R. Scott,
• Peter S. Ungar
  

• Published: December 26, 2012

Abstract

The saber-toothed cat, Smilodon fatalisP. atroxAcinonyx jubatus, which actively avoids bone. In contrast, S. fatalis has DMTA attributes most similar to the African lion Panthera leo, implying that S. fatalis did not avoid bone to the extent previously suggested by SEM microwear data. DMTA characters most indicative of bone consumption (i.e., complexity and textural fill volume) suggest that carcass utilization by the extinct carnivorans was not necessarily more complete during the Pleistocene at La Brea; thus, times may not have been “tougher” than the present. Additionally, minor to no significant differences in DMTA attributes from older (∼30–35 Ka) to younger (∼11.5 Ka) deposits offer little evidence that declining prey resources were a primary cause of extinction for these large cats.

Link: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0052453

Reply