THE OFFICIAL DINO LAND WEBSITE STATE FOSSILS
From 40,000 until about 8,000 years ago the modern urban center of Los Angeles was covered by heavy, sticky black tar, caused by the evaporation of crude oil which had seeped up through fissures in the earth's surface. Occasionally, predators would chase their prey into this tar, only to become stuck and eventually fossilized. Today this area is known as the Rancho LaBrea tarpits, and the fossils that have been discovered there include over 660 Pleistocene organisms. Among the most famous of these fossils is the sabertooth tiger Smilodon, the state fossil of California.
In reality, Smilodon wasn't a tiger at all, but instead a unique member of the family Nimravidae, an extinct carnivore family that was related to both the true cats and the mongooses. In life Smilodon would have grown to about the size of a modern day lion, but was twice as heavy. Its most striking characteristic was undoubtedly the large, seven-inch long set of canines protruding from its mouth. The function of these canines has been hotly debated, with paleontologists arguing between predatory and sexual function. While the exact answer to this question will never be known, leading sabertooth expert Dr. Larry Martin believes that the canines were used to hunt down prey. Unlike modern cheetahs and lions, though, sabertooths were not very quick. Instead, they were most likely ambush predators, and would surprise their prey, probably large ground sloths and other smaller Pleistocene herbivores, and use their large teeth to deliver a single fatal blow to the abdomen or neck.
It has also been hypothesized that Smilodon was a social animal, much like the modern day lion, and possibly hunted in small packs. Some Smilodon fossils from the LaBrea tarpits show evidence of serious crushing and fracture injuries, yet many of these bones show healing and regrowth. How could these sabertooths survive these life threatening injuries? Some paleontologists theorize that they were cared for by other sabertooth cats, lending evidence to the social and herding theories. But, life in sabertooth packs wasn't always this peaceful and friendly. Holes the size of sabertooth canines have been discovered in some sabertooth skulls, meaning that individual Smilodons most likely headbutted in order to win mates. Regardless of the plausibility of this theory, research into Smilodons will continue. Just recently Martin published on a new species of sabertooths from Florida, and its relationships with Smilodon are being studied, meaning that the mystery of sabertooths is still alive!
FOOTNOTE: All text is taken directly from the magazine Fossil News: The Journal of Avocational Paleontology, June 2000.
© 1997 brusatte@theramp.net
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