Prehistoric predators were tooled up
Fearsome fangs and forceful forelimbs were a common combination among prehistoric predators, a study has shown.
Sabre-toothed tigers were not the only creatures armed with oversized dagger-like canine teeth.
Others included the false sabre-toothed cats, or nimravids, and a family of cat-like carnivores called barbourofelids.
Scientists have now learned they all independently evolved the same trait - knife-like fangs and powerful forelimbs.
The strong forelimbs would have helped them hold down struggling prey while the teeth delivered a killer bite.
One reason for the adaptation was to protect the vulnerable teeth from damage, experts believe.
A study of sabre-toothed tigers showed that their large canine teeth were fragile compared with those of modern-day cats. It also revealed that the creatures had exceptionally thick arm bones compared with their feline cousins, a sign of limb strength.
Dr Julie Meachen, from the US National Evolutionary Synthesis Centre in Durham, North Carolina, noticed the same trend among the fossil skeletons of other sabre-toothed predators.
Image by las.photographs via Flickr
She measured the arm bones and upper canines of hundreds of museum specimens, as well as those of 13 cat species living today including the tiger and clouded leopard.
The findings, reported in the journal Paleobiology, revealed that as the prehistoric animals' canine teeth grew longer, their forelimbs grew thicker in an example of "convergent evolution".
"This means that sabre-tooth cats weren't actually that special in the big scheme of things," said Dr Meachen. "Other lesser-known species that weren't in the cat family evolved the same way."
Nimravids and barbourofelids were meat eaters that roamed the world until several million years ago and strongly resembled cats.
"If you saw one of these animals you'd probably think it was a cat, but true cats didn't evolve until millions of years later," said Dr Meachen.
Some species had long, flattened canines with "steak knife" serrations.
"Cats living today have canines that are shorter and round in cross section, so they can withstand forces in all directions," Dr Meachen added. "This comes in handy for hunting - their teeth are better able to withstand the stress and strain of struggling prey without breaking."
In contrast, the elongated canines of sabre-toothed predators were more oval, making them vulnerable to fracture.
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Daniel Smith - a long time ago, in a galaxy far away just north of Watford, Daniel fancied himself as a scientist but turned out to be the worst scientist since that bloke who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world but is safely behind a desk writing this blog, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... weird science.
Which of the animal or dragon whose teeth find ? So danger weapon