Freak Felids - A Discussion of History's Largest Felines

[peter]

Very interesting pictures, Grizzly. Good find.

The length of the limbs is remarkable. They must have been taller than the tigers of today. Most bones seem relatively larger and denser as well. All in all, one gets the impression that late Pleistocene tigers were larger and more robust than those of today.

Apart from the length of the limbs and the robust bones, the proportions seem similar to those of modern tigers. Tigers most probably always had relatively short skulls and robust canines. Could have been an adaption of solitary hunters hunting large animals.    

I also noticed that the bones in the fore-arms seem proportionally more developed than in other cats. As it isn't any different in modern tigers, the adaption most probably happened tens of thousands of years ago.  

For analogy. I remember an article about human skeletons found not so long ago in the UK. As the bones in the arm were quite a bit larger and more robust than average, researchers first thought they had been different from modern humans. Later, they concluded the skeletons had belonged to soldiers. Professional bowman, to be more precise. The bones of the fore-arm had adapted to the pressure. They also found plenty of healed fractures.

This means that the pressure that resulted in larger bones in the fore-arms of professional bowmen could compare to the pressure that resulted in larger bones in the fore-arms of tigers.  

When I thought of bows, I remembered the book of J.F. Brandt ('Untersuchungen über die Verbreitung des Tigers felis Tigris und seine Beziehungen zur Menschheit' , St. Petersburg, 1856). Brandt read just about everything available about tigers in his day. Varro, who studied Iranian and Armenian books, thought the Armenian word for tigers ('tigris') was an Iranian word. In Sanskrit, 'tig' means sharp. The word 'tigra' refers to sharp, fast or arrow. In new Persian, 'tig' refers to arrow as well. The name used for the Tigris river refers to 'fast flowing'.  

Returning to your post. I noticed the mandibula is nearly straight. This is also often seen in modern Amur tiger skulls. The upper skull also reminds me of Amur tigers (dense, elevated, relatively narrow and large canines). Do you know where the bones were found? Reply