How do you picture a saber-toothed cat...?

Spots, stripes, or plain?





Of course, we may never know, but I say spots.

How do you picture a saber-toothed cat...?
It would depend on the specific species and the type of habitat that the animal lived in.





For instance, paleo-artists often look to modern equivalents when trying to narrow down the coloration of an extinct animal. The closest living animals are of course modern wild cats.





Of all the 37 species of cat alive today, most have coat patterns of stripes, spots or mixed patterns. An un-marked coat is a rarity in today's cats.





But there is a correlation between an animal's skin or fur pattern and its habitat - in general the most heavily spotted or blotched cats tend to reside in dense forests. Cats with lighter or absent markings (like lions, pumas and caracals) prefer open country, though even they can be found in dense forest. Other cats are variable across the same species - take the North American bobcat - lynx rufus. Its coat can be nearly un-marked or heavily spotted like an ocelot, depending on its local habitat.





It is generally believed that the most famous of all sabertooths, Smilodon Californicus (the ones found in the tarpits near Los Angeles) would probably have been plain rather like today's lions. LA hundreds of thousands of years ago was rather like a savanah or great plains, a little wetter and cooler than it is today.





But, if the markings of present day cats are an indication, most sabertoothed cat species would have presented marked coats rather than plain.
Reply:Nice choice. Good job! Report It

Reply:According to these researchers:





"Like modern cats, most were ambush hunters, lying in wait for prey or stalking it before making a final dash. This means they needed camouflage. Spots and swirls break up the outline of a predator in undergrowth, while plain sandy or tawny hues blend into drier or barer backgrounds. The cats that hunted on open plains were probably sandy brown or tawny like modern cougars and lions, possibly with faint dappled markings. Others were probably more greyish in colour, like modern northern lynxes. Forest and woodland forms would need leopard-like or jaguar-like markings to blend in with dappled shade, though some may have been black. Although we speak of sabre-tooth "tigers", they would not have been striped unless they lived in habitats similar to those of modern tigers e.g. woodland with twiggy undergrowth or tall reeds . Depending on their habitat, the smaller cats would most likely have been similar to modern Ocelots (swirled), European and African Wildcats (faint mackerel tabby markings) or Leopard cats (spotted)."





They go on further to state:





"Those prehistoric big cats that lived in permanently snowy and icy climes would have needed paler coats to blend in with snow or patchy snow. They may have had coats resembling modern snow leopards. Some may have been almost white. They would need longer, denser fur to protect them from the cold, compared to those in warmer climes who would have shorter, sleeker coats Like modern cats, prehistoric cats in temperate zones (with summer and winter periods) would have moulted and grown longer coats for winter and shorter coats for summer. Modern male lions have manes, partly for social display and partly to protect their neck region during fights with competing males. There is some evidence that Smilodon was also social and lived in family groups, so Smilodon males may also have had manes or well-developed ruffs."



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