Smilodon populator

[LonePredator]

(06-01-2022, 02:06 AM)GuateGojira Wrote:

(05-31-2022, 05:33 PM)LonePredator Wrote: Is it feasible to compile them all and is there enough of it? Do you think there is enough of the data to make large enough sets of ‘weight estimate/bone measurement’ pairs separately for each species?

The CBL formula from Valkenburg you provided was made for all kinds of felids, right? And I am sure he made this for all felids because he did not have enough number of skulls to make separate regression equations for each separate felid species.

And because of this reason his formula may not be precise enough either and the weight estimate could have a large deviation from the actual weight if you use Valkenburg’s formula.

It will be very dificult, but I will try to compite it.

The formula of Dr Van Valkeburgh, from cats and from overall carnivores, is made with values in litterature, not real measurements and weights, in fact she present the values (in log values) in the document, so we can even check what values she used. The problem is that even when she do that, we know that the relation of skull with body size/weight is not the same in all the felids (ej. tigers and lions) so this create the ilusion that the bigger the skull, bigger the mass, which is not correct and depend in the variations on the species.

Yes, I agree completely. It’s not possible to estimate all felids with just a single formula because they are so different in morphology. We definitely need separate formulas for each felid species and if you are going to estimate one felid by using others as surrogates then you must do something like the Christiansen and Harris method.

The Christiansen and Harris method took multiple different measurements of the same bone and this allowed them to measure the drastic allometric variations within different felid species. In my mind, the Christiansen and Harris method is the most precise estimation for the Smilodon Populator till date.

If you use the Van Valkenburgh formula to estimate Lions then the weight will be a huge underestimation, if you estimate Tiger, it will still be a big underestimation and if you estimate Smilodon Populator then it will be a big overestimation.

Hence, the Christiansen and Harris formula is the best one till date especially for a species like Smilodon Populator for which no similar shape surrogate exists in the modern day. Reply