Extinct Smilodon Essay Example

the Smilodon fatalis; and the Smilodon populator.

The smilodon gracilis evolved 2. million years ago and went extinct about 500,00 years ago. The smilodon fatalis lasted from about 1. 6 million years ago to 10,000 years ago. The smilodon populator only lasted from a million years ago to 10,000 years ago. The smilodon was also one of the top predators in the Late Pleistocene America and was said to prey on large herbivores like bison and horses. In 2007, researchers from the University of New South Wales and the University of Newcastle demonstrated that the smilodon's bite was only one-third as powerful as a modern lion's bite.

However in 2010, researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles showed that smilodon had well-muscled, strong forelimbs. Most scientists suggest they were a stealth who wrestled its prey to the ground, pinned its head down, and made a quick killing bite to the throat with their 20-centimetre long canine tooth. This style of hunting would have been well suited for hunting large prey, but Smilodon would have struggled to hunt smaller animals when the environment changed (a fact that may have contributed to its extinction).

Couple that with the fact that their mouths could open up to 120 degrees wide, as opposed to 65 degrees of modern day lions, we can conclude that these cats were top of the food chain, vicious killing machines," says Garrett Gyssler, author of "The Smilodon", at the University of California, Fullerton. Fossils also suggest they had powerful front legs and a stocky build with a short tail. Occasional finds of saber tooth-sized holes in smilodon bones suggest the social life of smilodon was

not always peaceful.

The cats may have fought over food or mates as lions do today. Such fights were probably accompanied by loud roaring. From the structure of the hyoid bones in the throat of smilodon, we know it could roar. Some of the bones also show evidence of everything from arthritis to infection with the fungus. There was also a hip that shows a massive infection. Such problems would have been debilitating for the wounded animals. Yet many of these bones show extensive healing and regrowth indicating that even crippled animals survived for some time after their injuries.

How did they survive? It seems most likely that they were cared for, or at least allowed to feed, by other saber-toothed cats. This suggests they hunted in packs and not individually as most people believed. They hunted in packs, cared for their young, and hunted for the old and injured members. Most saber-tooth fossils are known from the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles. Tar seeps trapped animals within the pits, and their distress calls drew predators, like the saber-tooth, which also got stuck and perished themselves.

They had many adaptations for life during the ice age, many of which are not found on modern cats. Unlike modern cats such as cheetahs and lions that have long tails that balance them when they chase prey, smilodons had bobtails, suggesting that they ambushed their prey instead of chasing it. They were about a foot shorter than the modern day lion, but that didn’t stop them. According to Enchanted Learning, "It had relatively short legs and a short, bobbed tail. Its front legs were especially powerful.

Its body was adapted

for springing onto prey, but it was not a very fast runner. Smilodon also had very strong jaw and neck muscles that let it stab prey with its deadly teeth. ” Not much is known about the reasons for smilodon's extinction. Scientists speculate that their extinction was due to climate change, reduction of prey and possible human factors. A researcher writes, "The last smilodon lived 10,000 years ago and died out in the late Pleistocene. Earth's climate 10,000 years ago abruptly became extremely cold, and went into an era commonly known as an ice age.

The ice age led to vegetation pattern changes, which also led to prey being less numerous. Without a large amount of animals to feed on, and with humans likely killing off other competition game, the smilodon could do little to survive. While lions are faster and have stronger bites, the smilodons were comparably slower and had weaker bites. This could have resulted in them not being able to catch the faster prey. It was thought to have become extinct because of the rising sea levels.

During the Ice Age, when the water froze and the sea levels dropped, it uncovered more land, and that's where the saber tooth tiger lived, but at the end of the Ice Age, when the seawaters rose again, it covered the saber tooth tiger's environment. Soon, extensive grasslands, with different types of grasses, and isolated forests replaced healthy mixes of forests and grasslands. The summer and winter both became more extreme and North America began to dry out or begin to be covered in snow, thus denying food sources for the Mammoth and then the smilodon.

Works Cited

http://www.studymode.com/essays/Extinct-Smilodon-1847581.html

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12712-sabretooth-cat-had-a-surprisingly-delicate-bite.html

http://articles.latimes.com/1989-06-11/news/we-2965_1_saber-toothed-cat-tar-pits-george-c-page-museum

http://sciencing.com/did-tooth-tiger-go-extinct-6113344.html