Due to the fact my site has been used for a number of school projects, I've added this section with some extra information that although only related to big cat biology and evolution may still be useful for school projects. As with my images section, the photographs on this page are free for educational use. Click on any image to access the larger version.
As mentioned in the sections on Sabertooths, these cats are not direct descendants of modern Pantherines (lions, tigers, jaguars, and leopards). Here are a few photos to show the difference between the two.
American Lion (background) and Smilodon skeletons at the George C Page museum in Los Angeles. The skulls in the yellow case in the background are Dire Wolves.
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Here are the two cats side by side, the Smilodon is in the front. notice that how the rib cages seem similar in size, the Smilodon appears shorter. This is because it has a more stocky build with shorter legs. You can see how much higher the front legs of the American Lion in the background are. Also notice how the spine of the lion seems more on an angle while the Smilodon seems shorter and more curved. Click on the image for a larger version. |
| The same two skeletons as seen from another angle, the lion is facing forward and the Smilodon faces to the wall. Again the lion's longer legs can be seen. Click on the image for a larger version. |  |
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The two skulls side by side, if these are hard to tell apart, the larger image of the American Lion skeleton may be easier. Besides the longer canine teeth, the Smilodon also a smaller cranium (the area at the back of the head where the brain is held) and a larger sagital crest (that large crest of bone you can see on the back of the skull). Click on the images for a larger version. |
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Here's some information and pictures of the Rancho LaBrea Site ( The LaBrea Tar Pits) for those unable to visit it.
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Here's a view of the actual tar pit. From
the background you can see it's located in a very urban area. I was
surprised to find it was pretty much in the middle of downtown Los
Angeles when I visited.
Although it looks like nothing more than dirty water, this is an actual tar pit. You'd know it if you were close, it gives off a smell like someone tarring a roof or paving a highway. But the appearance is, as far as I've read, part of the reason animals would get caught. they'd come for a drink of water and end up mired in tar. Though I wonder how the scent wouldn't indicate otherwise. Click on the image for a larger version. |
An exhibit in the museum with bars to pull representing an animal's legs shows just how hard it is to pull yourself out of the pits as well. Pulling the metal bars form empty holes was easy enough, but to pull bars for shallow holes of tar was like lifting hundred pound weights. Needless to say it's easy to see how a large animal such as a bison or mastodon would have a hard time pulling itself free once trapped inside. It would be equally as difficult for a predator such as Smilodon to pull itself out as well once it tried to catch an easy meal form trapped prey.
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Two images of the actual labs at the Rancho LaBrea site where paleontologists work. the bones lined up on the tables at the right are Dire Wolf vertebrae. (and the mammoth in the same photo that looks like a statue on the table is actually a reflection in the glass of a model in the museum across form the lab) Click on the images for a larger version. |
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Finally I'll add a little on the actual work of paleontology in a museum. Though I've never been hired to work in paleontology, I did one summer volunteer at a local museum where I was working with a paleontologist sorting and sealing together bones from a mammoth skull. I enjoyed the work, but must tell that it is work only for those with a sincere interest in paleontology. It does tend to get frustrating and tedious if you don't have an interest. We would spend literally hours a day trying to fit one small piece of bone to countless other fragments, and sometimes get only one match a day. I averaged 4 hours a day twice a week and sometimes in eight hours would not find a single match. Paleontology and Museum work in general involves a lot of patience.
Most of the time is spent in identifying and cataloguing before even attempting to reconstruct a specimen. The mammoth bones I worked on had already been catalogued and I had to be careful to keep them in a certain order according to their numbers. All the vertebrae you see in the photo will have to be sorted, given numbers, and recorded in the museum's records. They seem to already have been cleaned of any debris that might have been attached to them. Cleaning is also not easy, in my project I had to use a small toothbrush and even dental picks to remove the smallest bits of mud attached to the bone fragments.
Some people also do not realize that the skeletons like those on this page or in any museum you see are not actually complete. On average, most mounts you see of ancient mammals and dinosaurs in museums have only a small fraction of actual fossils in them. The rest are reconstructed from fossil casts of other specimens of similar size, and these cast bones are then fitted with the actual fossils to give the appearance of a full skeleton. But enough individual bones have been found in the Rancho LaBrea site to possibly construct a skeleton entirely of fossils, though they may not always be form the same individual.
