Smilodon : The prehistoric cat

SMILODON

Saber-toothed Cat skeleton at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo, Japan.

Smilodon was a genus of prehistoric cat belonging to the Machairodontinae. It was the last and largest of the sabertooth cats, ranging from North to South America during the late Pliocene to the end of the Pleistocene. Commonly referred to as a Saber-toothed tiger, it is by no means related to modern tigers or other pantherines, as it belongs to a completely extinct line of cats.

Smilodon was the largest sabre-toothed cat (popularly known as the sabre tooth tiger). Smilodon was a fierce predator about 3 metres long and 1.05 metres tall. Smilodon  species weighed anywhere from 110 (gracilis)–400 (populator) kg. Smilodon was a bit larger than a modern-day lion (Panthera leo), but much heavier.

 Smilodon had relatively short, muscular legs and a short, bobbed tail a bit like that of a modern day bobcat. Smilodon's  front legs were especially powerful and its body was adapted for springing onto prey, but it was not a very fast runner and could not adapt to chase after fast-running prey like deer. Instead, it hunted relatively slower animals such as Macrauchenia, Toxodon, some species of mammoths and mastodon, and ground sloths.

Overall, Smilodon was more robustly built than any extant cat, with particularly well-developed forelimbs and exceptionally long upper canine teeth. Its jaw had a bigger gape than that of modern cats, and its upper canines were slender and fragile, being adapted for precision killing.