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(11-10-2018, 11:14 PM)brotherbear Wrote: It seems I read somewhere that Smilodon fatalis is even more heavily built than the larger Smilodon populator. Would this be correct?
I generally remember the opposite being said. Skimming through Christiansen and Harris (2005), it looks like S. populator was quite a bit more robust and heavily built than S. fatalis.
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Take any of the width measurements and divide them by humerus length (HL) or femur length (FL), respectively, to find the width:length ratio. It generally seem S. populator had greater width to length ratios, hinting it was more heavily built.
Smilodon fatalis lived in an environment akin to the pantherine species, that's why its body was accustomed to be more panthera-like.
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Yes I received it!
With S. fatalis sharing its range with a true pantherine, it’s interesting that it did not follow the route of becoming a “bear-cat” to the extent S. populator did. Perhaps the extra mass would overlap with the niche of P. atrox too much.
When you look at the old world sabertooth species, they were even more panthera-like as more pantherine species co-existed with them adjacently.