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Smilodon fatalis skeleton
Skeleton of Smilodon fatalis (after Gebauer 2007).
Smilodon, the saber-toothed cat, was an advanced mammalian carnivore, one of the top predators during the Pleistocene period. It first appears in the fossil record ca. 2.5 mya, and became extinct at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation at about 10,000 BP.
The earliest species of Smilodon is S. gracilis, which existed from 2.5 million to 500,000 years ago, during the early Blancan to Irvingtonian ages of the Pleistocene. It probably evolved in North America from the felid Megantereon, which entered North America from Eurasia during the Pliocene Period (5-2.5 mya). S. gracilis, the smallest of the three known Smilodon species, weighed 55 to 100 kg (120 to 220 lb).
Two younger, and larger Smilodon species are probably derived from S. gracilis. S. fatalis existed 1.6 million–10,000 BP and replaced S. gracilis in North America. It weighed 160 to 280 kg (350 to 620 lb) and was 100 cm (39 in) high.
S. populator lived in the eastern part of South America from 1 million to 10,000 years BP. This was the largest of the three Smilodon species, weighing 220 to 436 kg (485 to 961 lb), and at 120 cm (47 in) in height, representing one of the largest known felids.
There are intriguing parallels between Smilodon and some of the gorgonopsian predators of the Late Permian period, including Sauroctonus. The lower jaws of gorgonopsians, for example, had a thicker front portion than the rear portion, protecting the enlarged canine teeth; a similar function was performed by bone flanges of saber-toothed cats. Sauroctonus likely occupied the same ecological niche as did Smilodon, about 250 million years later (Gebauer 2007).
References:
Gebauer, E.V.I. 2007. Phylogeny and evolution of the Gorgonopsia with a special reference to the skull and skeleton of GPIT/RE/7113 ('Aelurognathus? parringtoni)" Ph.D. thesis, Tübingen: Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen.
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