Mighty Arms Helped Extinct Cats Keep a Mouthful of Fanged Teeth

LiveScience ^ | January 4, 2012 | Charles Choi

[SunkenCiv]

Sabertooth cats and other super-toothy predators apparently possessed mighty arms that they used to help them kill.

The beefy arms would have served to pin down prey and protect the ferocious-looking teeth of the feline predators, which were actually fragile enough to fracture, scientists find.

The finding also may hold for other knife-fanged prehistoric carnivores; long before sabertooth cats evolved, a number of now-extinct toothy hunters once roamed the Earth. These included the nimravids, or false sabertooth cats, which lived from 7 million to 42 million years ago alongside a sister group to cats known as barbourofelids, which lived from 5 million to 20 million years ago...

Nimravids and barbourofelids left no living descendants, but fossils revealed their fangs came in a wide range of shapes and sizes. Some were shorter and round, while others were longer and flattened. Some even were serrated like a steak knife, Meachen-Samuels said.

Sabertooth cats had long fangs that looked formidable but were fragile compared with those of modern felines. The daggerlike teeth were more vulnerable to fracture.

[To Hell With Poverty]

Sabertooth kitty ping.

[JRandomFreeper]

You should hang out here. There are times in the summer when we have rocking chair races and coffin races. ;)

If you are here, there is always someone willing to hold your beer and 'watch this'. Yee-haw (boom) ;)

Back to the article, I think the 'writer' misabused the english language. Catz don't have arms. But a 'journalist' doesn't need those pesky facts.

Smilodon failed, and died. Long teeth and mighty 'arms' didn't help.

Should have worked on an opposable thumb.

/johnny

[threepercenter]

Coffin races? Hmmm... I know I’m in a “race to the coffin” which I know I’ll win. Actually we all win that race at some point! Sounds entertaining though!

Most “Journolists” are a bit short on both writing and fact-checking skills from what I’ve seen. With my last English/writing class in 10th grade I’m not one to point fingers, but sometimes the torturing of the language even gets my attention. I r an Engineer! Tech manuals? I’m your guy. Articles? Not so much. But at least my written words are factually accurate!

Smilodon? I’ve heard it tastes like chicken! Or at least after the crock pot it would. “Arms” and all.

[JRandomFreeper]

Actually, there is a real coffin, and a real street, and we do run them down the street in the summer (beer may be involved). First one to run the stop sign wins.

You can google my screen name and coffin races and see posts from years back.

And I can handle any kind of pesky cat that comes around.

/johnny