Why did sabertoothed cats go extinct? Easy. More sabercats died than were born.
How did it happen? Ah, well – that’s not quite so straightforward.
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Category: Sabertoothed cats
Nimravides and the Metailurini. It sounds like a rock band, but these were once two real and very different types of long-fanged big cat
The most advanced cats ever – Homotherium, Megantereon, and Smilodon – are prowling around, forcing the ancestors of modern cats to keep a low profile, and you and I are at a crossroads. A series on sabercats must go in one of two different directions at this point.
The early history of the two major saber-cat tribes – the Smilodontini and the Homotheriini – isn’t well understood yet. Paleontologists want to know more about it, because these terrifyingly beautiful predators were the most advanced cats that have ever walked the Earth.
Sabertoothed cats are only the most recent in a long line of sabertoothed predators.
Saberteeth are extra-long, extra-flat upper fangs. No modern cats have them, but extinct sabercats Smilodon and Homotherium each had a unique sabertooth shape.
A multi-million-year predator niche has been empty for the last 11,000 years. We should be celebrating that fact. Instead, if safety could be guaranteed, who wouldn’t want to go see a live sabertoothed cat at the zoo?
If . . .
Does it matter if the ferocious sabertooth that’s about to attack you lacks the right bone structure to convince scientists it’s a cat?
Homotherium was the more successful of the two ice-age sabertoothed cats, but it’s also more of a mystery.
As scary as Smilodon cats must have been, something terribly beautiful left the world when they finally disappeared.
