Research overview: enamel growth lines and canine development in sabertooths

This overview reviews how incremental growth lines preserved in sabertooth tooth enamel and dentine are used to reconstruct the developmental schedule of the famous canines. Like tree rings, these microscopic bands record periodic growth, allowing researchers to estimate how quickly the sabres lengthened and how long they took to reach full size. Studies of Smilodon, for example, have indicated rapid but prolonged canine growth extending well into subadulthood. The survey discusses the methods of sectioning or imaging teeth to count growth increments, what the resulting rates reveal about life history, maturation, and the timing of independence in young sabertooths, and how such fine-scale developmental data complement skeletal evidence in reconstructing the biology of extinct cats.