National Park Service White Sands U.S. Department of the Interior

White Sands National Monument Saber-Toothed Cat

Saber-Toothed Cats / Smilodon fatalis (NPS Photo) aber-toothed cats (Smilodon fatalis), also known as the saber-toothed tigers or simply smilodons, are some of Sthe most iconic ice age animals. Their claims to fame are their oversized canine teeth, which could reach up to seven to eight inches (17-20 centimeters) long!

These big cats lived during the tail made it better suited for ambush called Lake Otero. This lake attracted Pleistocene epoch, appearing in the attacks. It would use its powerful, a number of ice age mammals, fossil record about 800,000 years ago. front legs to grab and hold prey so including sloths, mammoths, camels, Although they are not the only saber- that it could use its formidable saber- and, of course, saber-toothed cats. toothed carnivore to live during that like teeth, which were serrated along period, they are certainly the best- the front and back edges like a steak These cats were tenacious and known. knife. The saber-toothed cat would adaptable animals, thriving for slash at its prey’s belly or throat before hundreds of thousands of years Saber-toothed cats may be known retreating and waiting for the unlucky before their time finally came to an as tigers or lions, but names can be animal to die. However, it would end. Saber-toothed cats went extinct deceiving! These cats are actually likely not have attacked its prey’s between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago, not directly related to modern tigers back or neck, as the strong muscles as the ice age drew to an end and their or lions. Rather, they were a unique in this area of the body could break prey began to die out. Even so, these group of animals, standing up to the cat’s teeth. The saber-toothed cat formidable hunters certainly left their three feet (1 m) tall at the shoulder, mostly hunted the large, slow-moving mark on the world – quite literally 5.5 feet (1.7 m) in length, and up to animals that were plentiful at the time, here at White Sands, as we have found 750 pounds (340 kg) in weight. They like sloths, bison, and even young their footprints! These prints are would have been somewhat similar mammoths and mastodons. part of our Pleistocene trackway, a to lions, though shorter and almost collection of footprints left behind by twice as heavy. This ambush-hunting style worked our ice age inhabitants thousands of well and helped saber-toothed cats years ago. The saber-tooth cat hunted with a to survive throughout the Americas. style all its own. Unlike modern big They spread from coast to coast, from cats, who have long legs and long southern Canada all the way to Peru. tails used for balance when running, They even lived here at White Sands! the saber-toothed cat was not very Keep in mind that back then the sand good at chasing-down prey. Its heavy, dunes did not exist, and the Tularosa bulky body, short legs, and bobbed Basin was home to an enormous lake

Revised 09/5/2016