Smilodon fatalis (Leidy, 1868)

Davis, Matt, Nye, Benjamin D., Sinatra, Gale M., Swartout, William, Sjӧberg, Molly, Porter, Molly, Nelson, David, Kennedy, Alana A. U., Herrick, Imogen, Weeks, Danaan DeNeve & Lindsey, Emily, 2022, Designing scientifically-grounded paleoart for augmented reality at La Brea Tar Pits, Palaeontologia Electronica (a 9) 25 (1), pp. 1-37 : 19-21

Smilodon fatalis

( Figure 12 )

Appearance. Our saber-toothed cat model followed thoroughly-researched reconstructions by Antón and others (Antón et al., 1998; Antón,

DAVIS ET AL.: LA BREA TAR PITS PALEOART

2013b). The dappled coat of our model ( Figure 12 ) is a speculative but commonly used pattern for saber-toothed cat reconstructions, consistent with the common interpretation of Smilodon fatalis as an ambush predator that lived in mixed habitats (Antón, 2013b). In an attempt to produce a more robust estimate of what saber-toothed cats’ pelts might look like, we combined the models of Meloro et al. (Meloro et al., 2013), which predicted habitat type from skeletal morphology of big cats, with the models of Allen et al. (Allen et al., 2011), which used habitat type (among other variables) to predict coat pattern in extant felids. However, we were unable to find any strong signal linking skeletal morphology directly to quantitative features of coat pattern. This remains a promising line of research for future paleoartistic reconstructions.

Behavior. For simple animations of walking and attacking prey, we used the similarly-sized extant African lion as an analogue. However, sociality in saber-toothed cats, like that of American lions, remains controversial with various lines of evidence from brain size to healed fracture rates put forth to support conflicting conclusions on their sociality (McCall et al., 2003). The preponderance of the evidence, including the overabundance of S. fatalis fossils at Rancho La Brea (where it represents the second most common megafauna species after dire wolves) as well as the prevalence of healed injuries (Shaw and Ware, 2018) matches expectations for a group-living animal lured into a predator trap (Carbone et al., 2009). We chose to display saber-toothed cats in small groups of two or three individuals as a gregarious social structure seems supported by the taphonomic evidence and matches multiple earlier works of sculpture and paintings found at the La Brea Tar Pits.

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Short-faced Bear

Figures

FIGURE 12. Low poly reconstruction of the extinct saber-toothed cat (Smilodon fatalis). To view this model in 3D, please see the online version of this article.