The lion may be king of the jungle today but it certainly wasn’t always that way.
Using detailed fossil comparison techniques, researchers have been able to identify one of the biggest new species of sabre-tooth cat that prowled this earth approximately 5 to 9 million years ago and it’s called Machairodus lahayishupup.
Now say that ten times fast.
An ancient relative of the Smilodon, aka the sabre-tooth tiger, M. lahayishupup was much larger as it was estimated to have had a body mass of over 274 kilograms (604 pounds). To give you a better idea of the sheer size of this cat, the average lion of today weighs between 150-260 kilograms (330 – 575 pounds).
Seven fossil specimens including teeth and upper arms were examined and compared with fossils from museum collections in Texas, California, Oregon and Idaho in order to identify the new species.
Thanks to advancement in modern technology, digital images and specialized software helped researchers find similarities between these new fossils and previously discovered ones as well as their differences. The age and size of the fossils provided researchers with a good starting point.
“What we didn’t have then, that we have now, is the test of whether the size and anatomy of those bones tells us anything – and it turns out that yes, they do.” States Paleobiologist John Orcutt from Gonzaga University.
The largest upper arm or humerus fossil was around 1.4 times the size of the same bone in the average lion today and upper arms are crucial in cats for killing prey. “We believe that these were animals that were routinely taking down bison-sized animals”. Back then, rhinos were abundant and quite possibly preyed upon by M. lahayishupup as well as larger sloths and camels.
“This was by far the largest cat alive at the time” says Ohio State University paleontologist Jonathan Calede.
We may never know the full story of this now extinct species but one things for sure, this saber-toothed cat told a lot of animals to put up or lahayishupup.
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