IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Akersten, W.A. | |
| Canine function in Smilodon (Mammalia: Felidae; Machairodontinae) | |
| 1985 Contributions in Science: 1-22 | |
A number of sabertoothed mammal features, exemplified by _Smilodon_ from Rancho La Brea, cannot be reconciled with hypotheses that the upper canines were used for stabbing or slashing: the relatively dull sabers which would require enormous force to penetrate the hide of a prey animal, the robust mandible with functional but small canines, the geometric relationships of the skull and the reconstructed head-depressing musculature, and the presence of canine opposition (necessary for biting but not for stabbing or slashing). It is also difficult to envision intermediate steps of behavior and morphology in the multiple evolution of stabbing or slashing from biting ancestors. These apparent anomalies can be resolved (and other features can be explained) by hypothesizing that the upper canines were employed in a shearing, as opposed to puncturing, bite accomplished by depressing the cranium against immobilized mandibles. The probable area of attak was the abdomen. Most, if not all, other sabertoothed mammals appear to possess canine opposition and probably employed some variation of the attack methodology suggested for _Smilodon_. Several lines of evidence suggest that _Smilodon_ possessed some degree of cooperative social behavior. The attack methods of the extant Komodo dragon, _Varanus_ _komodoensis_, appear to be analogous to those hypothesized for _Smilodon_ and the extinct giant varanids of Australia may have preempted the niche occupied by sabertoothed mammals on other continents. |
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