This Fossil Friday features the saber-toothed tiger Smilodon populator from the Pleistocene of Brazil. Just like dinosaurs and mammoths, saber-toothed tigers are among the most iconic prehistoric animals. The La Brea Tar Pits near Los Angeles are just one of the famous fossil localities where well-preserved skeletons of saber-toothed tigers have been found. A recent study by scientists from the University of Liege (2024) looked into the origin of this peculiar dental trait. Actually, unlike many other instances of biological novelty saber teeth did not appear abruptly and do not represent a morphological discontinuity, but rather show a continuum of sizes and shapes of the canine teeth in cat-like carnivores. This is not so surprising, as the character of saber teeth is not a complex Read More ›
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