Saber-tooth predators from South America were not 'ferocious': Study

A new study led by researchers from the University of Bristol has revealed that not all saber-tooth predators from South America were fearsome predators. Published in a journal Peer J, the evolution of South American carnivorous was investigated through the functional analysis of postcranial adaptive traits and paleobiologic data. It was found that Saber-tooth cats like the North American species Smilodon Fatalis, are among the most iconic fossil animals known as fierce predators. 

As per the research, the groundwater discharge deposits, north of Las Vegas, Nevada, have yielded an abundant and diverse vertebrate fossil assemblage that the scientists named Tule Springs local fauna (TSLF). TSLF is the largest open-site vertebrate fossil assemblage dating to the Rancholabrean North American Land Mammal Age in the southern Great Basin and the Mojave Desert. The postcranial remains of Smilodon Fatalis differentiated them from other large predators.  

While it is a bit of a mystery as to what this animal was actually doing but it's clear that it wasn't just a marsupial version of a saber-toothed cat-like Smilodon—Professor Janis.

An international team of researchers, led by Professor Christine Janis from Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, has performed a series of studies on the skull and teeth of the Sabre-toothed cat. They compared it with the ferocious predator jaguar-sized marsupial, popularly known as the 'marsupial saber-tooth' which had huge, sharp, and ever-growing canines, which made them a vicious predator. 

Professor Christine Janis from Bristol's School of Earth Sciences said, “The title of this paper, 'An Eye for a Tooth', sums up how we think this animal has been perceived. While Sabretooth cats have impressive canines, it lacks incisors, which big cats today use to get the meat off the bone. Further, she added, “Marsupials canines were triangular in shape like a claw rather than flat like a blade in Sabretooth cats.” Co-author Borja Figueiredo of the University of Málaga (Spain) added that the cats’ skull was different in many details from any known carnivorous mammal, past or present.

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It was eating soft food, didn't use canines to kill

Stephan Lautenschlager from the University of Birmingham confirmed saying that saber-toothed cats had a weaker bite than Smilodon which suggests that they were not using its canines to kill with, but perhaps instead to open carcasses. “If you examine the detailed microwear on tooth surfaces, it's clear that it was eating soft food,” Larisa DeSantis from Vanderbilt University (USA), who conducted a detailed dental study, said.  

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