An eye for a tooth: Thylacosmilus was not a marsupial "saber-tooth predator".

ABSTRACT:

Background

Saber-toothed mammals, now all extinct, were cats or "cat-like" forms with enlarged, blade-like upper canines, proposed as specialists in taking large prey. During the last 66 Ma, the saber-tooth ecomorph has evolved convergently at least in five different mammalian lineages across both marsupials and placentals. Indeed, Thylacosmilus atrox, the so-called "marsupial saber-tooth," is often considered as a classic example of convergence with placental saber-tooth cats such as Smilodon fatalis. However, despite its superficial similarity to saber-toothed placentals, T. atrox lacks many of the critical anatomical features related to their inferred predatory behavior-that of employing their enlarged canines in a killing head strike.

Methods

Here we

SUBMITTER: M Janis C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7323715 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature