Smilodon populator

[brotherbear]

(12-10-2018, 07:02 PM)P.T.Sondaica Wrote: Who more robust smilodon vs bear

Freak Felids post #563 by tigerluver
 
RE: 312 kg figure. There are a handful of popular data tables people cite when it comes to North American brown & grizzly bear morphometry including weight. IMO, a comprehensive review of these data tables are called for hence the creation of the following thread. Some of the corresponding data have already been posted (see Extant/North America section) while more will be forthcoming. 

Getting back to Kodiak brown bears, from the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge Center, the figure of 600-1,400 lbs for male bears is easier understood. The lower range numbers correspond to young adult male Kodiak bears while the higher numbers correspond to the older mature bears. Regrettably, the data for older "trophy" size bears is thin (in my experience, this is true for many bear populations) where such data can be found would be from hunting literature sources but outside of skull measurements; finding out other morphometrical info (e.g, weight, chest girth, body length, paw size, etc) is challenging. Nonetheless, after reviewing a lot of the technical literature, the quote of the "half-ton" Kodiak bear are common is accurate. Anecdotal observation, when I am watching tourist video (e.g., Youtube) or viewing photograph of mature Kodiak brown bears (less online material) and mature SW Peninsula brown bears (a lot more online sources), I see a lot of males pushing and exceeding half-ton weight & size.
Smilodon's femur is proportionately much larger than its tibia compared to all pantherines by a long ways. Its humerus is also proportionately larger than its ulna, a ratio only matched by the very robust leopard and jaguar. The longer proximal bones is indicative of the fact that Smilodon is indeed much more heavily built than the lion and the tiger, and somewhat more heavyset than the leopard and jaguar.

From this, maybe the best route of Smilodon reconstruction would be one width dimensions and/or the length dimension of the bone, either allometrically or isometrically compared to only jaguars and leopards. The type of bone being used would also have to be taken into account to predict the accuracy of the estimation. Forelimb estimates may be overestimates somewhat, and vice versa for hindlimb estimates. Reply