FOSSTL CARNIVORA 43 
tiger, it was not nearly so active and intelligent, and that it was 
fitted to prey upon the slow-moving giant pachyderms of the 
Quaternary rather than upon active, alert and intelligent ani- 
mals, least of all perhaps upon man. In the extinction of the 
Sabre-Tooth Tiger we may rather regret the passing away of a 
singular and magnificent type of the beasts of prey than rejoice 
over the disappearance of a dangerous enemy to the human race. 
The ancestral Sabre-Tooth Tigers of the older geological 
epochs were smaller and less specialized. The skeleton of Hop- 
FIG. 19. SKULL AND LOWER JAW OF DINICTIS 
Primitive Sabre-Tooth Tiger from the Oligocene of Colorado. One-half natural size 
lophoneus illustrates their general character and size. This is 
the most perfect specimen in the collection, every bone being 
present, and all, with a few unimportant exceptions, complete 
and perfectly preserved. Hoplophoneus was proportioned some- 
what lke a leopard, but with shorter smaller limbs and very 
short spreading feet. Dznictis had longer limbs, but the teeth 
were less specialized. Archelurus and Nimravus were more primi- 
tive types, linking the Sabre-Tooth with the ancestors of the 
true Cats. 
Habits of the Sabre-Tooth Tigers. The modern great Cats kill 
their prey usually by biting it in the neck so as to break the spinal 
column. They pursue as a rule the long-necked, thin-skinned 
