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Batterymaster — Smilodon
#cat #feline #felines #smilodon #smilodonfatalis #smilodonpopulator #machairodont #ice_age
Published: 2017-11-25 17:19:22 +0000 UTC; Views: 4738; Favourites: 42; Downloads: 1
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Description
Smilodon was a large genus of saber-toothed machairodont cat that lived before, during, and shortly after the Ice Age. The genus was originally native to South America, but at the start of the Ice Age, they quickly populated North America where they could finally eat something that wasn't an oversized armadillo. The largest species, Smilodon populator, was roughly the same size as a modern lion, but was much stronger, more durable and robustly built than any other cat living or extinct. Such immense strength allowed Smilodon to easily kill larger prey single-handedly. After incapacitating its prey, Smilodon would then kill it using its massive canine teeth to bite the corotid artery, resulting in the prey's inescapable death. When not in use, these menacing teeth were concealed by extended lips, keeping them moist, sharp and protected from decay. Smilodon also had a massive jaw gape that allowed it to open its mouth wider than any other living cat, giving way for its canine teeth while giving a death bite. Smilodon, along with many other species of American megafauna, went extinct 10,000 years ago.Related content
Comments: 11
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You know, the sheeted Smilodon hypothesis has been pretty much debunked
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The fact is, the lipped model requires a level of soft-tissue lippage which not only opposes the feline EPB, but would be unprecedented among any living mammal. How would lips of that size actually function? It's difficult to imagine how the obicularis oris would work in this model: this would be enormous, dropping ring of muscle around the mouth, and I'm not sure how it could be cleared from the teeth when biting and feeding, assuming normal principles of mammalian face musculature. It's possible that Smilodon had a unique facial myology of course, although the consistency of face muscles across mammals argues for this being unlikely. Such muscles controlling the lip would need to be very large, and it would be expected to see some indication of this on the skull itself as we do in other mammals with sophisticated facial soft-tissues (like trunks and proboscides). Generations of people who know carnivoran anatomy very well have pored over machairodont skulls and never commented on such features.
Regarding a lower lip coverage in particular, it must be noted that most carnivorous mammals hava very large, fleshy upper lips over thinner, tightly-bound soft tissues of the lower jaw, so unless Smilodon and kin had lip anatomy completely unlike their modern relatives, their canine teeth must have been exposed (Witton 2018). Of course there's the exception of the clouded leopard, which sheaths a long set of canines in its lower jaw, but they're not even close to the size of Smilodon's sabers.
Regarding canine configuration, while it's likely that Smilodon canine function lacks exact modern functional analogues, the sabre teeth of tusked deer are not too far off in terms of physical demand (being routinely used in aggressive, tissue-tearing fights that leave victims scarred and wounded) and anatomy (thin layers of enamel over much of the tooth - Smilodon canines are not thickly enamelled), and still these animals have them exposed.
As a general rule, especially long teeth which project a considerable distance from the margins of the skull and lower jaw should be considered strong candidates for permanent exposure.
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Enamel is present on tusked deer, Smilodon, wild boars, warthogs, gomphotheres, and many more, so there is no reason to believd enamel can't be exposed.
As I explained above, the level of soft tissue in the (speculative) reconstruction you provided is not consistent with soft tissue correlates on sabertooths, so the most likely and conservative hypothesis is that the canines were indeed exposed.
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Yeah, I know. Seems pretty impractical in hindsight, tbh. This was made back when it was still a thing.
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