146 Biology in America 



upper jaw which are eight inches long or more. These tusks 

 have somewhat the shape of a scimitar, being flattened on the 

 sides and narrow transversely, with a saw-tooth edge behind. 

 The opposing teeth of the lower jaw were undeveloped. How 

 the animal could have handled these enormous tusks is a 

 problem, but it has been suggested that they were used some- 

 what as a venomous snake uses its fangs, to strike and kill 

 the prey rather than for cutting and biting it. This theory 

 is supported by the relatively weak lower jaw, as compared 

 with that of a modern cat, and the large mastoid process at 

 the base of the skull, in which were inserted the great mus- 



THE SABER-TOOTHED TIGER 



From a restoration by Chas. E. Knight. 



Courtesy of the American, Museum of Natural History. 



cles used for lowering the head and striking the prey. The 

 gape must have been enormous to allow free play for the use 

 of these great fangs, and indeed it is not impossible that the 

 animal owes its extinction to overgrowth of these teeth, which 

 finally became a hindrance rather than a help to their pos- 

 sessor. 



And what were the victims of this cruel tyrant of the 

 past ? Its occurrence with the thick-skinned cumbrous beasts 

 like the elephant and the giant sloth, and the fact that it 

 must have been less agile than its modern cousins, to judge 

 from its thick-set legs and body, have been advanced by Lull 

 as reasons for supposing that these animals formed its prin- 

 cipal prey; while the swifter footed, more agile cats of to- 



