Evolutionary History of Saber-Toothed Cats Based on Ancient Mitogenomics

This study recovered mitochondrial genomes from the extinct scimitar-toothed cat Homotherium using ancient DNA, including a specimen from the permafrost, to place the sabertooths relative to living cats. The authors confirmed that the sabertoothed Machairodontinae form a lineage that diverged from the ancestors of all modern cats around twenty million years ago, far deeper than any split among living felids. They also found evidence consistent with Homotherium persisting in the Americas later than some fossil estimates suggested. The work demonstrated that ancient DNA can illuminate the relationships of extinct felid lineages and firmly separated the iconic sabertooths from the conical-toothed cats alive today.