Friday 18 January 2013

NEWSLINK: The Stochastic Scientist: Can broken teeth explain big cat extinction?

The Stochastic Scientist: Can broken teeth explain big cat extinction?
About 7% of modern big cats and 9% of modern hyenas have broken teeth, whereas 36% of the extinct lion and 11% of saber-toothed cats had broken teeth.


Why did American lions (Panthera atrox, top left) and saber-toothed cats (alluringly named Smilodon fatalis, bottom left) go extinct some 12,000 years ago? One hypothesis is that the predators fell on hard times as their prey was either culled by competing humans or decimated by climate change. The rational behind this idea is that the carnivores found at the La Brea tar pits (yes, I know how redundant this is) in California had a lot of broken teeth. About 7% of modern big cats and 9% of modern hyenas have broken teeth, whereas 36% of the extinct lion and 11% of saber-toothed cats had broken teeth. This led researchers to wonder if the large cats were forced to consume high amounts of bone as their prey diminished.

No comments:

Post a Comment