Smilodon populator

[GuateGojira]

A new record specimen for Smilodon populator:

I was reading this article, please check it: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/scien...tiger.html

It is incredible that they found this new skull of S. populator that has a greatest lenght of 16 inches (406 mm), according with the article. The estimated body mass, based in the skull is about 960 lb (435.4 kg), but take in count that the formula used in the one of Van Valkenburg (1990) so the result should be taken with caution.

The original paper is here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...ode=talc20

Sadly, I don't have access to it, so I need to trust in the news report for the moment.

Now, how big is a S. populator skull of 406 mm? One can say "hey, lions and tigers have bigger skulls than that", but is that correct? Well, let's check this image:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Here we can see the BoneClones specimens, the Amur tiger skull measure 383 mm and the Smilodon fatalis skull measure 357 mm, even then you can see that the skull of the Smilodon is more massive and bigger overall than that skull of tiger and will also surpass a lion skull of the same size. In this case, an skull of 406 mm will be more massive than any modern lion-tiger skull of similar length.

Now, here are two images of the skull, one of the specimen alone an the other with Andrés Rinderknecht, a paleontologiest at the National Museum of Natural History in Montevideo, Uruguay, holding the specimen. Check the images:

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Incredible specimen, I will wait for more details before to make a comparison. For the moment, it holds the record for the largest saber-tooth cat in America. Reply