Smilodon populator

[tigerluver]

(12-31-2021, 08:49 PM)T-RexWins Wrote: @tigerluver

Regarding your post #16 on thread 2, why is the S. populator femur that much shorter than the Tiger femur? Is it from a very small S. populator specimen? Or is it because S. populator had shorter hind legs compared to front limbs? Would a very large S. populator specimen's femur be of equal height to the Tiger femur?

@jrocks is on point. S. populator has severely reduced hindlimbs. The forelimb/hindlimb ratio is around 1.08 (P. leo/tigris are around 0.90), so the hindlimbs are proportionately 20% shorter than the forelimbs as compared to extant Panthera.

The type specimen of S. populator is odd in that it's skull length is rather small but its postcranial remains are actually toward the upper quartiles of what we have recovered. If we assume the holotype skeleton's ratios can be applied to the largest skulls of the species, then the Uruguay giant of GSL 392 mm has a femur of about ~460 mm. There is an even larger reported skull in Mendez-Alzola of 408.4 mm, which would have that 480 mm femur. There is a hefty degree of uncertainty in these estimation given the first sentence of this paragraph, nonetheless it's the best we have. Reply