How long are saber tooth tigers teeth

Some point to the clouded leopard of Asia has sometimes as having the potential to become the next sabertooth. Riley Black is a freelance science writer specializing in evolution, paleontology and natural history who blogs regularly for Scientific American. How did the sabertooth cat wield its excess of tooth?

An artist's imagining of a Smilodon looking into the grass at something threatening. Stocktrek Images, Inc. Even though their canines were massive and intimidating, their jaws weren't strong enough to bite through bones. So, the cats had to use their canines like knives as opposed to crushing the spines of their prey.

Saber-tooth cats had baby teeth, just like humans and other mammals have. After their baby canines fell out, the adult canines grew at a rate of 8 millimeters per month for 18 months. It would seem that having such enormous teeth would make biting and chewing rather difficult, but saber-tooth cats' jaws could open up to degrees wide, enabling them to use the canines more precisely.

There are differing views regarding saber-tooth cats' social behavior, and, because they are now extinct, we may never know the truth. Some paleontologists believe that they were social cats that hunted in packs, while others believed them to be solitary stalkers of prey. Scientists have found saber-tooth cat fossils that displayed serious injuries, though the injuries appeared to have healed over time. Many scientists believe that such fossils could not exist unless healthy saber-tooth cats looked after the injured ones.

However, other scientists believe that those fossils came from cats that lived off stored fats and proteins while their injuries healed. Learn more about saber-tooth anatomy. Learn more about how saber-tooth cats worked.

Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Environmental Science. Earth Science. How Saber-tooth Cats Worked. Smilodon fatalis , the saber-tooth cat: a little like a tiger and a little like a bear.

See more pictures of big cats. Today's big cats have long canines, too -- but they're tiny compared to the elongated teeth of a saber-tooth. Saber-tooth Anatomy " ". Social Saber-tooths " ". Fossilized bones of saber-tooth cats are a primary source of information about how they may have behaved. Barks and Bites. Other Saber-tooths " ". Even though a walrus's canines are distinctively long, they're known as tusks,.

Man-eating Saber-tooths. Saber-tooth Cat Summary Saber-tooth cats, which are commonly yet improperly referred to as saber-tooth tigers, weighed up to pounds and were built like compact lions. Saber-tooth cats' canines grew up to 7 inches long. Saber-tooth cats did not have long tails like lions, which means that their balance would have been substantially worse.

Saber-tooth cats fed on large, slow, ice-age mammals. Saber-tooth cats may have been more closely-related to lions than tigers. Saber-tooth cat fossils are among the most common mammal fossils found in the Rancho La Brea tar pits in California. Wild to Mild. Saber teeth evolved both among the true cats, or the family Felidae these saber-toothed cats are sometimes classified in a separate subfamily of cats, the Machairodontinae and within the Nimravidae an extinct carnivore family that was related both to the true cats and to the civets and mongooses.

The Hyaenodontidae, a family of the extinct mammalian order Creodonta , also included saber-toothed members. Even saber-toothed marsupial "cats" or thylacosmilids inhabited South America from the upper Miocene to the late Pliocene. The saber-tooth morphology is an excellent example of convergent evolution as it appeared in several evolutionary lineages independently. Why the enormous teeth?

Certainly they were used in hunting, but opinions vary as to exactly how they were used. Some paleontologists have suggested that they were used to grab and hold onto prey. However, attacking a large herbivore this way could easily break the saber teeth and saber teeth that were demonstrably broken during an animal's lifetime are rare in fossil deposits.

A more plausible hypothesis suggests that saber teeth were used to deliver a fatal ripping wound to the belly or throat of a prey animal. Sabertooth carnivores may not have tried to grapple with prey.

More likely, they delivered one crippling stab wound and then waited for the prey to die. We present two sabertooths, both classified in the order Carnivora, from different geological periods. Click on either picture to view an enlarged version. The "saber-toothed tiger," Smilodon , is the California State Fossil and the second most common fossil mammal found in the La Brea tar pits.

This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If you continue with this browser, you may see unexpected results. How Do We Know This? General Appearance General Description Similar in size to modern African Lion, but more robust with slightly shorter limbs.