Paleo Catalog: Smilodon (Saber Tooth Cat)

#PaleoAnalysis
This is my first video in a new series where I'll be doing a deep dive into everything there is to know about a specific long extinct animal. From their evolution to their extinction and just what made them so unique. I will even be giving a hands on look at the skull of many species!

In this episode, I will be looking at one of the most iconic animals from the Ice Age. Smilodon, the Saber Tooth Cat!

---

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro
0.46 Unique Predator
2:07 Evolution
6:04 A Closer Look
13:27 Tar Pits
16:23 Extinction
18:01 Outro

---

Want to support Paleo Analysis?

And don't forget to like, share and subscribe!

---

Special thanks to Benjamin R. Langlois for the thumbnail/video artwork!

---

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

[ellagrant]

Maybe I'm biased being Australian, but I'd like to see a deep dive on the marsupial lion. It was even more tanky than the sabretooth iirc. I think one of it's ancestors possibly mated with a Sherman tank.

[SalviPapiii]

I’ve never been into paleontology and I’m not sure why it was recommended to me. But, I gave your videos a chance and have loved them ever since! You sparked an interest in a topic I would’ve never thought I’d be so fascinated by. Thank you.

[adamgtrap]

What you said at the end really made me think, smilodons prey started to go extinct around 11, 000 years ago. That is not very long at all. There have been ruins discovered that old, and modern humans have been around since long before then. That's just kind of wild to think about.

[K-Boogie]

I love Smilodon but personally I also admired the ice age lions of Europe and the Americas also !

[Shinzon]

If they ever resurrect them through a DNA sample, you know people would go "big cat, must pet", and I'd be happy with that

[Exquailibur]

its crazy to think most of today's animals were around back then too, its just that all the big ones died out. For me the saddest ones are the ground sloths, giant anteaters are one of the few animals that can fight off a jaguar and have similar builds to ground sloths. So many of today's animals are just holdovers from that time, pronghorns, polar bears, musk ox, wolverines, and even many plants like avocados. Just leftovers from long gone ecosystems, the same thing still happens today the some species are running away from ghosts.

[thenewguyinred]

By the way. Some paleontologists theorize that Smilodon had massive lips to hide their long dagger fangs due to a cave painting discovered by explores. What do you think, are their theories scientifically plausible?

[meg]

I never thought about the problems those teeth might cause. All I ever saw was giant scary teeth. Kinda silly that it never occurred to me that they would need to open their mouths so wide to even use those things.
I just found your channel and I'm enjoying binging your videos!

[Jebiwibiwabo]

Idea of a pack hunting cat is a very strange one in today's climate, and equally as terrifying lol, interesting stuff!

[petersmythe]

The social predator theory makes a lot of sense given that social predators that hunt large prey usually have excessive weaponry to deal with excessively large targets, and are usually highly offense-oreiented because individuals within the pack will momentarily disengage to counter enemy attacks while their comrades continue their own attacks, instead of defending or tanking the attack. They also can afford to take more damaging hits because they don't individually starve if they can't hunt. Given prey animals usually don't have effective omnidirectional attacks, that's a pretty good strategy.

Examples include:
African wild dogs: Most flesh-cutting molars and highest relative bite strength of the dogs.
Wolves: bite strength high for their size.
Social insects: Stings and formic sprays that can hurt things many times their size. Often formidable jaws as well.
Hyenas: again with the crazy biteforce.
Humans: extreme threat to megafauna using bladed flint and obsidian projectiles.

[Scott-wfkp]

Fascinating stuff. I'm so interested in the rest of this series. Great work compiling, editing, and narrating all of this information in such an easy-to-understand format.

[wanderer]

@1:55 I love the four-way split with three intimidating big cats and then a random house cat stalking around someone's backyard

[stevenjohnson]

Excellent presentation.
Hopefully you could do something similar regarding other Pleistocene predators such the American Lion and short faced bear.

[nataliezuniga]

I hope the momentum keeps going for you. I'm glad I found this channel.

[carolynallisee]

Most cat species (there are exceptions) seem to be built to kill their prey quickly. Even our domestic cats are built for this. Not only are their canines long enough to reach the spinal column of the rodents they prey on, the gap between them is sized so that when the teeth go in, they slide between the vertebrae and prise them apart, severing the spinal cord. Their canines are also sharp enough to pierce the skulls of small mammals. I know this because I had a collection of skulls of animals that one of my long passed on cats brought home from his hunting trips. I had bird skulls, squirrel skulls, rabbit skulls and even a hedgehog skull, but the most valued were a pair of weasel or stoat skulls. I got the skulls by burying the bodies in the back garden and leaving them for a year which was usually long enough to clean the skeletons. What was surprising about the weasel skulls was that both had circular depressed skull fractures, in the centre of which was a single small round hole. Neither body showed signs of other damage, so I assume that Tabby ( the cat's name) must have grabbed the animal and bit down straight away. As to where he found them, he was a veteran rabbit hunter, and the railway bank at the bottom of our garden was a massive rabbit warren. I guess he met those unfortunate weasels whilst he and they were hunting the same stretch of warren

[TalesofKaimere]

Watching again for my upcoming Smilodon fatalis reconstruction!

[PanthalassaRo]

I loved that you showed some skulls! Puts in a very clear light how different both animals were function and size.

[BarnJ]

The specialist/generalist thing is so true about people in the professional world too. People who hyper-specialize tend to be the most in-demand employees, but when an industry changes they're hit the hardest. Meanwhile "jack of all trades" types tend to be middling in terms of marketability and income, but they have the easiest time to adapt to new economic or industrial trends.

[ericciardi]

I think your videos are awesome. I think a really cool topic for a video would be the Short-Faced Bear, the Entelodonts, and Hyaenadon.

[felixVanDiemen]

Thanks for the video and your channel, loving it! I'd love to see you do a piece on the Australian Thylacoleo Carnifex, otherwise known as the marsupial lion. Keep up the good work my friend.