🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This study compiled and compared estimated bite forces across many large carnivorous mammals, both living and extinct, to test how bite mechanics relate to predatory behaviour and to predict the habit…

Stephen Wroe, Colin McHenry, Jeffrey Thomason · Proceedings of the Royal Society B · 2005

This study estimated body mass across the species of Smilodon using regression relationships between skeletal dimensions and body weight in living felids. The analysis confirmed that the South America…

Per Christiansen, John M. Harris · Journal of Morphology · 2005

In this classic functional study, Akersten proposed the canine shear-bite model for Smilodon, addressing how an animal could use such elongated, blade-like upper canines without snapping them. He argu…

William A. Akersten · Contributions in Science, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County · 1985

The authors applied dental microwear texture analysis to carnivores from Rancho La Brea, comparing microscopic wear surfaces on the teeth of Smilodon fatalis and other predators across the deposit's c…

Larisa R. G. DeSantis, Blaine W. Schubert, Jessica R. Scott, Peter S. Ungar · PLoS ONE · 2012

This study used three-dimensional analysis of skull and jaw shape to test whether scimitar-toothed and dirk-toothed sabercats differed in how they killed prey. By quantifying cranial geometry across m…

Borja Figueirido, Stephan Lautenschlager, Alejandro Perez-Ramos, Blaire Van Valkenburgh · Current Biology · 2018

This study quantified variation in skull and lower-jaw shape across living and extinct cats to understand the patterns and constraints governing felid cranial evolution. Using morphometric analysis of…

Per Christiansen · PLoS ONE · 2008

This study recovered ancient DNA from extinct North American cats, including the scimitar-toothed Homotherium and the cheetah-like Miracinonyx, to test their relationships against living felids. The g…

Ross Barnett, Ian Barnes, Matthew J. Phillips, Larry D. Martin, C. Richard Harington, Jennifer A. Leonard, Alan Cooper · Current Biology · 2005

This study recovered complete mitochondrial genomes from the dirk-toothed Smilodon and the scimitar-toothed Homotherium, allowing a genetic test of how these iconic sabertooths relate to one another a…

Johanna L. A. Paijmans, Ross Barnett, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, et al. · Current Biology · 2017

This classic study analysed the skull architecture of sabertooth cats to explain how the distinctive cranial features functioned together during the killing bite. The authors examined how the enlarged…

Sharon B. Emerson, Leonard Radinsky · Paleobiology · 1980

This study described Panthera blytheae, a newly recognized fossil cat from the Tibetan Himalaya that represents the oldest known member of the pantherine lineage, the group containing all living big c…

Z. Jack Tseng, Xiaoming Wang, Graham J. Slater, Gary T. Takeuchi, Qiang Li, Juan Liu, Guangpu Xie · Proceedings of the Royal Society B · 2014

This study used geometric morphometrics to chart how skull shape evolved across sabertooth cats and their conical-toothed relatives. By quantifying cranial landmarks in many felid species, the authors…

Graham J. Slater, Blaire Van Valkenburgh · Paleobiology · 2008

This study described Panthera zdanskyi, an exceptionally complete fossil cat skull from northwestern China that illuminates the early evolution of the tiger lineage. Dated to the Pliocene, the specime…

Ji H. Mazak, Per Christiansen, Andrew C. Kitchener · PLoS ONE · 2011

This study tested whether Smilodon fatalis was social by treating the Rancho La Brea tar seeps as a fossilized natural experiment. Modern audio playbacks of distressed prey draw social carnivores in f…

Chris Carbone, Tom Maddox, Paul J. Funston, Michael G. L. Mills, Gregory F. Grether, Blaire Van Valkenburgh · Biology Letters · 2009

This systematic study examined the North American species long grouped under Pseudaelurus, the assemblage of stem cats that bridged the earliest felids and the later radiation of modern cats and saber…

Tom Rothwell · American Museum Novitates · 2003

This authoritative review chapter synthesizes the evolutionary history and phylogeny of the cat family, integrating fossil evidence with molecular data to present a comprehensive picture of how cats d…

Lars Werdelin, Nobuyuki Yamaguchi, Warren E. Johnson, Stephen J. O'Brien · Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids (Oxford University Press) · 2010

This study used ancient and modern DNA to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships and population history of lions, including the extinct American lion and Eurasian cave lion. The genetic data resol…

Ross Barnett, Beth Shapiro, Ian Barnes, Simon Y. W. Ho, Joachim Burger, Nobuyuki Yamaguchi, et al. · Molecular Ecology · 2009

This work measured carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in bone collagen from Rancho La Brea mammals, including the predators Smilodon and Panthera atrox alongside their herbivore prey. The isotopic si…

Joan Brenner Coltrain, John M. Harris, Thure E. Cerling, James R. Ehleringer, et al. · Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology · 2004

This overview surveys Acinonyx pardinensis, a large extinct cheetah that ranged across Eurasia during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. Considerably bigger than the living cheetah, sometimes approaching t…

This overview surveys the Barbourofelidae, a group of sabertooth-bearing carnivores, including the formidable Barbourofelis, that represent yet another independent acquisition of the sabertooth form d…

This overview examines Dinofelis, a leopard-to-jaguar-sized cat of the Pliocene and early Pleistocene placed among the Metailurini, whose moderately enlarged, flattened canines mark it as an intermedi…

This overview examines Friesenhahn Cave in Texas, a remarkable site that has shaped interpretations of Homotherium hunting behaviour. The cave yielded numerous remains of the scimitar cat alongside an…

This overview surveys evidence that the scimitar-toothed cat Homotherium reached South America, expanding its already vast range across the Americas. Fossil discoveries, including material reported fr…

This overview surveys Homotherium, the scimitar-toothed sabercat whose fossils span North America, Eurasia, and Africa, making it one of the most widely distributed of all machairodonts. Distinguished…

This overview surveys Hyperailurictis, the name applied to the North American Pseudaelurus-grade cats that represent the first true felids to colonize the continent after the cat gap. Arriving from Eu…

This overview surveys Machairodus and its later, larger relative Amphimachairodus, big scimitar-toothed cats that dominated late Miocene predator guilds across Eurasia, Africa, and North America. Thes…

This overview examines Megantereon, a relatively small but powerfully built dirk-toothed cat of the Pliocene and early Pleistocene whose remains are known from Africa, Eurasia, and North America. With…

This overview surveys Metailurus, a medium-sized cat of the late Miocene and Pliocene that lends its name to the Metailurini, a tribe of machairodonts with only modestly developed sabre canines. Less…

This overview examines the influential idea that the extraordinary running speed of the American pronghorn evolved as a response to predation by the extinct cheetah-like cat Miracinonyx. The pronghorn…

This overview describes Natural Trap Cave in Wyoming, a deep sinkhole that acted as a pitfall for Pleistocene animals and accumulated a rich fossil assemblage including the American lion, the cheetah-…

This overview examines the Nimravidae, an extinct family of cat-like carnivores that independently evolved sabertooth forms long before the true machairodont cats. Though strikingly similar to felids…