If there is anything that says “prehistoric”, it’s saber-tooth cats. Just like my pet fluffy, except as big as a lion and with six inch fangs! And, of course, in our artistic reconstructions, we see the fangs hanging right there as fluffy smiles at us.
This spring researchers in Spain report a comprehensive rethink of this reconstruction [2].
The new work is informed by detailed observation of living large cats and the heads of dead cats. The latter are somewhat comparable to well preserved fossils of saber-tooth cats. The game, of course, is to extrapolate back to what the living saber-tooths would look and act like. The research used 3D rendering software combined with anatomical models of musculature and pose to reconstruct the ancient cats.
The video studies clearly show that in contemporary cats the large canines are not visible when the cat is relaxed. They are displayed during yawns, growls, and threats; but ordinarily are not visible.
CT studies of the heads of contemporary animals shows that there is a pocket of flesh and skin at the chin which covers the canine when relaxed. This area is complicated, and, like a tongue can be stretched and tightened. Essentially, there are special sheaths for the extruding canines. These look like a protruding chin, which, frankly, often looks like a beard.
Extrapolating these observations to the prehistoric animals, the researchers hypothesize that Homotherium probably had a similar, though larger, chin structure that sheathed its large upper canines. Other taxa probably had similar appearance.
Fig. 6. Reconstruction of Homotherium latidens based on the fossil specimen MNHN.F.PET 2000 a & b from Perrier: (A), lateral view of skull and mandible with slight restoration of the ventral outline of the mental crest, and cervical column (this latter a schematic outline based on fossils from Senèze and Incarcal); (B), outline of cranio-cervical skeleton, showing the attachment areas of selected muscles including the temporalis (t), masseter (m), digastric (d) and levator nasolabialis (ln); (C), reconstruction of selected elements of soft-tissue anatomy including the muscles temporalis (t), masseter (m) and digastric (d), as well as the bisected nasal cartilage (nc) and the bisected mass of connective tissue rostroventral to the mental region of the mandible (ctm); (D), reconstruction of the superficial craniocervical musculature, showing fibres of the levator nasolabialis muscle (lnf) and of the orbicularis oris (oof); (E), reconstructed external appearance of the head and neck (Artwork by M. Antón).
However, Smilodon, famous from the La Brea tar pits, probably did not have the mechanism to conceal the canines, so they would have been visible even when the face was relaxed
This paper essentially reverses an earlier reconstruction of Homotherium by the same researchers [1] <<link>>, and suggests, as Anthony Ham put it, “We’ve Been Drawing These Saber-Tooth Cats All Wrong” [3].
Who cares? Only every nerd in the world!
- Mauricio Antón, Manuel J. Salesa, Alan Turner, Ángel Galobart, and Juan Francisco Pastor, Soft tissue reconstruction of Homotherium latidens (Mammalia, Carnivora, Felidae). Implications for the possibility of representations in Palaeolithic art. Geobios, 42 (5):541-551, 2009/09/01/ 2009. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016699509000539
- Mauricio Antón, Gema Siliceo, Juan F. Pastor, and Manuel J. Salesa, Concealed weapons: A revised reconstruction of the facial anatomy and life appearance of the sabre-toothed cat Homotherium latidens (Felidae, Machairodontinae). Quaternary Science Reviews, 284:107471, 2022/05/15/ 2022. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379122001020
- Anthony Ham, We’ve Been Drawing These Saber-Tooth Cats All Wrong, in New York Times. 2022: New York. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/07/science/saber-tooth-cats-teeth.html
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