Freak Felids - A Discussion of History's Largest Felines

[tigerluver]

Paleobiology of sabretooth cat Smilodon populatorin the Pampean Region (Buenos Aires Province, Argentina) around the Last Glacial Maximum: Insights from carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in bone collagen  - Bocherens et al. 2016.

*This image is copyright of its original author

The above was the abstract figure for the paper, and sums up the findings very succinctly.

Key points (mixed in my analysis to supplement the info):

S. populator 
This species primarily preyed upon Macrauchenia. Weighing around a ton according to some sources (cannot verify), the predator:prey size ratio would be 1:2.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Two ground sloths also comprised some of the S. populator diet. Namely, Lestodon (2-4 Imperial tons/1-2 metric tonnes?) and Megatherium (6 imperial tons/3 metric tonnes?) were a significant portion of the diet, albeit Macrauchenia still comprised a much heftier amount. If S. populator was hunting the biggest of such game, I assume group living would be the only way. 

S. populator and its prey species were confined to open grasslands. Protocyon is molecularly shown to somewhat compete with S. populator for the same prey but the authors also theorizes that this dog-like animal may have scavenged Smilodon kills instead of exclusively hunting the aforementioned prey species. Reply