![]() Depending on the discipline that you're in, you think differently.”īrittney J. “It involves not just archaeologists, but also ecologists, mammalogists, all sorts of people. “It’s a huge thing,” Hill said about the lack of scientific consensus. Some researchers think human hunters are responsible others blame climatic change. Sabertooth cats became extinct between 12,000 and 13,000 years ago. On top of that, this 13,000-year-old fossil adds another piece to the puzzle of why ice age animals went extinct in a “geological instance,” Hill said. The researchers expect to publish their findings in the coming year. They will investigate the chemistry of the sabertooth cat’s skull - along with the bones of other prehistoric carnivores - to figure out what types of animals they ate. To do so, he is teaming up with Andrew Somerville, an ISU assistant professor of archaeology. Specifically, Hill said he’s hoping to research the prey of prehistoric large carnivores. ![]() Researchers can still learn more from the sabertooth skull. “That means that extinction probably happened shortly after this animal died.” “It's the fourth-youngest radiocarbon-dated sabertooth cat in the Western Hemisphere at present,” Hill said. Its body was buried quickly, sealed off and protected from the elements until it was found in 2017. The researchers determined that the cat died between 13,605 and 13,460 years ago at the end of the most recent ice age. Radiocarbon dating measures the amount of decaying carbon in organic matter to figure out how old it is. “Traumatic injuries to the head are pretty common in large carnivores that hunt large herbivores … It's a really rough way to live.”Īside from physical attributes, the researchers also used radiocarbon dating to uncover when the animal died. “We think that possibly one of the canines was broken during an encounter with a large animal, potentially a prey,” Hill said. The stub left behind isn’t worn down, suggesting that the tooth broke off close to the cat’s time of death. The skull is missing one of its iconic canines. How did it die? That’s still unclear - but, again, its teeth leave behind some clues. He estimated the cat was around two or three years old when it died. That means the sabertooth cat hadn’t lived long enough to prominently grind down its tooth by chewing its food. The skull’s owner likely weighed about 550 pounds at death, surpassing the size of today’s average African lion adult male.įor more evidence, Hill looked at the teeth: They were permanent adult teeth, but they weren’t worn down much. That comparison meant this sabertooth cat was likely a male, too, since female cats were smaller. Those plates weren’t fully sealed yet, signaling that this animal wasn’t done growing - even though it was already bigger than the mature male sabertooth skulls found in Los Angeles tar pits, Hill said. The skull is made up of several connected plates. But, with careful analysis, the remnant still provided clues into the life of the sabertooth cat it once belonged to. ![]() Only the skull was found - the lower jaw and the rest of the skeleton were lost with the past. “We’re moving up the food chain, and they become rarer.” Detective work But only a handful of lions, leopards and cheetahs,” he said. “When you look at the Serengeti on your documentaries, we have lots and lots of wildebeests and zebras, for example. That’s because animal populations get smaller moving up the food chain - both today and millennia ago, Hill explained. ![]() It adds to a collection of only about 70 existing sabertooth fossils across the country, making it an extremely rare archaeological find. The next-closest discoveries were found in southeastern Missouri, northeastern Kansas and Oklahoma. Iowa hosts a laundry list of ice age fossils, like dire wolves, caribou, giant short-faced bears, giant ground sloths - just to name a few.īut the newfound sabertooth skull is the first evidence of the predator ever living in the state. “If you know what to look for on the specimen, one little thing can reveal a whole lot of information its life in the past.” A rare find We learned a heck of a lot from one specimen,” Hill said. Their findings were published this month in the peer-reviewed journal Quaternary Science Reviews. They found it once belonged to a young male sabertooth cat - marking the first evidence of the iconic ice age predator in Iowa. On and off for four years, Hill analyzed the skull with David Easterla, a biology professor emeritus at Northwest Missouri State University. It's beautiful.” - Matthew Hill, Iowa State University The preservation of it is second to none. “It's not just a broken tooth or a bit of a skull. Hill said the person who found the skull has asked to remain anonymous, and the exact location of its discovery is being kept quiet to discourage follow-up artifact hunting. ![]()
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