Research overview: ancient DNA and the biology of Smilodon

Smilodon, the famous sabertoothed cat of the Americas, is known from abundant fossils such as those at the La Brea tar pits, but its DNA has been difficult to recover from warm-climate deposits. This overview surveys efforts to obtain ancient genetic data from Smilodon and related sabertooths, the placement of the Machairodontinae as a deeply divergent felid subfamily that left no living descendants, and what genomics has begun to reveal about sabertooth physiology and population history. It discusses the challenges of DNA preservation, the complementary roles of morphology and molecules, and how sabertooth genetics frames the deep evolution of the cat family.