Smilodon fatalis

[epaiva]

Smilodon fatalis was the famous cat known from the Rancho La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles.The tar, a bit like asphalt, has yielded about a million bones of late Pleistocene mammals, of which 162,000 bones are from Smilodon, representing perhaps 1200 individuals. it weighted up to 280 kg (620 lb) measured from 175 to 190 cm and had a height at the shoulders of 100 cm (39 in). The coat pattern of Smilodon is unknown, but it has been artistically restored with plain or spotted patterns.
Smilodon fatalis hunted large herbivores such as bison and camels, but it is unclear in what manner the bite itself was delivered.
The front limbs on these cats were longer and stronger than modern cats, and from that, and its teeth, its method of attack must have been different. An educated guess would be: they were an ambush predators, which clung on round the neck of their prey, and slashed at the underside of the throat. This contrasts with the method of the modern lion, which brings down its prey by weight of numbers, and clamps its jaws over the prey's nose and mouth. The prey dies of suffocation.
Smilodon's gape could have reached almost 120 degrees, while that of the modern lion reaches 65 degrees. This makes the gape wide enough to allow Smilodon to slash the throats of their victims without closing their jaws in a bite.

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*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

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