| "Who
hasn't fantasized about the awesome creatures, long extinct, that
used to roam our earth (especially our continent!) back when man
was as much a part of nature as they were? And none could have been
much more fearsome then the sabre-tooth cat. The amazing canine
teeth on these animals seem to defy reality. How could they possibly
be put to use without getting in the way? But the jaws of these
creatures (not of the lineage of felines as we know them today)
opened so wide as to allow the teeth to be sunk deep within the
huge prey these animals routinely attacked. Superbly equipped with
muscular bodies about the size of today's lions (with shorter, stouter
legs, longer necks and shorter lower backs), and those incredible
sabre-like teeth, these "cats" were about as fearsome
predators as one can imagine. They were not, however, as intelligent
as today's felines who learned early on not to get caught in the
tar pits that have given us so much of our fossil information about
the sabre-tooths. And the felines did, after all, survive to give
us the magnificent cats we admire today. The sabre-tooth did not."
- Rosetta |
