The consummate guide to the ultimate sabertooth.
Few animals spark the imagination as much as the sabertooth cat Smilodon. With their incredibly long canines, which hung like fangs past their jaws, these ferocious predators were first encountered by humans when our species entered the Americas. We can only imagine what ice age humans felt when they were confronted by a wild cat larger than a Siberian tiger.
Because Smilodon skeletons are perennial favorites with museum visitors, researchers have devoted themselves to learning as much as possible about the lives of these massive cats. This volume, edited by celebrated academics, brings together a team of experts to provide a comprehensive and contemporary view of all that is known about Smilodon. The result is a detailed scientific work that will be invaluable to paleontologists, mammalogists, and serious amateur sabertooth devotees.
The book
- covers all major aspects of the animal's natural history, evolution, phylogenetic relationships, anatomy, biomechanics, and ecology
- traces all three Smilodon species across both North and South America
- brings together original, unpublished research with historical accounts of Smilodon's discovery in nineteenth-century Brazil
The definitive reference on these iconic Pleistocene mammals, Smilodon will be cited by researchers for decades to come.
Contributors: John P. Babiarz, Wendy J. Binder, Charles S. Churcher, Larisa R. G. DeSantis, Robert S. Feranec, Therese Flink, James L. Knight, Margaret E. Lewis, Larry D. Martin, H. Gregory McDonald, Julie A. Meachen, William C. H. Parr, Ashley R. Reynolds. Kevin L. Seymour, Christopher A. Shaw, C. S. Ware, Lars Werdelin, H. Todd Wheeler, Stephen Wroe, M. Aleksander Wysocki
About the Author: Lars Werdelin is a professor of paleontology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. He is the coeditor of Cenozoic Mammals of Africa. H. Gregory McDonald is a regional paleontologist for the Bureau of Land Management, Utah State Office. He is the coauthor of The White River Badlands: Geology and Paleontology. Christopher A. Shaw is a research associate and former collections manager at the George C. Page Museum.
