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.
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