Freak Felids - A Discussion of History's Largest Felines

[GuateGojira]

(09-26-2015, 08:55 AM)genao87 Wrote: Hey man,  this is really nice if the Amur Tiger grew bigger in the past,   I would like a reconstruction of how big it was and compare it to the Nnogtong Tiger and the Wooly Tiger. 

Is it safe to assume that now the Amur Tiger has a more robust skull compare to the Bengal Tiger?   That this was how the Amur was in the past and what it should be today,  assuming there is enough food to support it.

I kind of think our ancestor and even the largest humanoids were cat food to these guys.

Hello @genao87, I do remember you from AVA. Nice to see you here.

About the skulls of Bengal and Amur tigers, in fact, these are two different forms that developed the best of the tiger world, reaching the same body size and weight. Bengal tigers skulls are less massive in comparison with those of the Amur region, but this is just from a visual point of view. @peter stated that in fact, Bengal tiger skulls seems broader and more heavier than those of the Amur specimens that he measured, and this from many specimens.

On average, Amur tiger skulls are longer and wider than those from Bengal, but this is probably caused by the size of the sample (over 50 of Bengals and less than 15 for Amur), besides the difference is currently of less than 2 cm! Besides, both cats had the longest canines recorded: Mazák (1981) recorded a canine of 7.45 cm probably for its largest skull (Amur) but the famous male "Madla" from India had canines of up to 7.6 cm measured at the gum line. Amur tigers generally had wider rostrums but the difference is negligible in the largest specimens.

Finally, the sagital crest is greatly developed in the Amur and Caspian tigers (more than any tiger or lion population), while the crest of the Bengal tigers is very small and comparable with other mainland populations. I guessed that the development of the large crest and canines in the Amur-Caspian tigers was because they prey wild boar more often than any other tiger population. Taking in count that the boars in the Caspian and the Amur region are the largest and that they are fully capable to fight back, even more than many deer and even the largest wild cattle, is possible that the northern tigers developed a stronger bite to kill faster that dangerous prey.

About the comparison, here is a new image of the Ngandong tiger (Panthera tigris soloensis) and the Bengal and Amur tigers, all scaled at they maximum sizes. In fact, the largest specimens of the Wanhsien tigers (Panthera tigris acutidens) in scientific collections are marginally larger than the largest modern Amur-Bengal specimens, so there is probably not big difference.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Private collections have Pleistocene tiger fossils from China that match those of the Ngandong tigers, however they had not been measured by scientists, which is a shame as those specimens seems magnificent.

Greetings. Reply