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HOW THE SABRE-TOOTHED TIGERS 
KILLED THEIR PREY. 
URING the greater portion of the third or last great 
geological epoch—the Tertiary period of geologists—there 
flourished certain very large and powerful members of the cat 
tribe, commonly known, on account of the inordinate length of 
their upper tusks, as sabre-toothed tigers, although there is 
nothing to show that they had any more affinity with the tiger 
than withthe lion. Indeed, they were widely separated struc- 
turally from both, as they were from all living cats. In these 
sabre-tooths the upper tusks were huge, compressed, scimitar- 
shaped teeth, with the front and back edges generally, if not 
always, finely serrated. In some of the later species, which 
existed contemporaneously with man, the upper tusks were 
eight or nine inches in length, and they were longest of all in 
a South American species. In the earlier members of the 
group, before they had attained the inordinate development 
NO. 1710, VOL. 66] 
NATURE 357 
o 
characterising the later forms, the upper tusks were protected 
by a descending flange at the fore part of each side of the lower 
jaw. Apparently, however, this was not found to be a satis- 
factory working arrangement, and it was accordingly discarded in 
the later forms, the tusks of which became proportionately thicker 
so as to stand in need of no such protection. At the same 
time the whole lower jaw became remarkably slender and weak, 
so much so, indeed, that it is evident it could not have been 
used in the same manner as the lower jaw of a lion or a tiger. 
Confirmation of this view is afforded by the circumstance that 
the lower jaw articulates with the skull in quite a different way 
from that which occurs in the last-mentioned animals. 
Sabre-tooths were distributed over a great portion of the sur- 
face of the globe, their remains having been found in England, 
France, Germany, Hungary, Greece, Persia, India and North 
and South America. They lived at first at a time when true 
cats were either very scarce or entirely unknown, and they 
appear to have survived longest in South America. 
A moment’s consideration will show that, at any rate in the 
case of the longest-tusked species, it was quite impossible for 
these animals to bite in the ordinary manner, as the entrance to 
the mouth would be barred by the tusks, which must have 
reached to the sides of the lower jaw if the extent of the gape 
were only equal to that of a lion or a tiger. 
This disability has given rise to several suggestions as to the 
mode in which the sabre-tooths used their upper tusks. One 
idea was that they were employed as stabbing weapons, and 
used while the mouth is closed. With the earlier forms, in 
which the tusks were shorter and protected by a flange on the 
lower jaw, this method of use would obviously be an impossi- 
bility. Moreover, as is pointed out by a writer whose name will 
be mentioned later on, it would involve, after long adaptation 
to striking with the mouth open, a sudden change to attacking 
with the jaw closed. Perhaps a still more serious objection is 
the fact that the efficient length of the weapon would be 
diminished by about a half if the attack were made with the jaw 
shut, and therefore that the animals might just as well have 
remained in their primitive form, with comparatively short 
tusks. Again, the closed mouth would obviously be a very 
serious disadvantage to an animal which drinks the blood of its 
victims. 
Among other strange suggestions, it has been supposed that the 
tusks were employed as aids in climbing trees! A part from other 
considerations, their brittle structure and finely serrated edges 
would render them obviously unsuited for this purpose. 
Another idea is that the sabre-tooths were aquatic in their 
habits, and that their tusks were used in some respects in the 
same manner as are those of the walrus. Needless to say, this 
idea, although difficult to disprove in so many words, may be 
dismissed without serious comment. It may be added that the 
long tusks of the later and more specialised sabre-tooths have 
actually been regarded as the cause of the extinction of the 
group, the idea being that the creatures, owing to the entrance 
being barred by the tusks, could not open their mouths suffi- 
ciently wide to admit food. 
Recently, in the A/emozys of the American Museum of 
Natural History, Mr. W. D. Matthew has suggested an explana- 
tion of the puzzle, which, although somewhat startling to pre- 
conceived ideas, seems on the whole to be the best solution of 
the problem hitherto offered. Starting with the indisputable 
fact that the mode of articulation of the lower jaw to the skull is 
quite different from that which obtains in the true cats, and also 
bearing in mind the weakness of the lower jaw itself and the 
smallness of its tusks, the author suggests that the sabre-tooths 
dropped the lower jaw into a vertical position, and were thus 
enabled to use their upper tusks as stabbing weapons. An 
examination of the skull of the large South American species in 
the British Museum shows that such a position of the lower jaw 
is quite possible, the small size of its ascending or coronoid 
branch allowing the necessary movement to be made without 
interfering with the cheek-arches, 
‘“Presumably,” adds the author, ‘‘the ligaments were 
adjusted to these changes, and if so, there appears to be no 
reason why the sabre-tooth should not open his mouth far 
wider than is possible for the cat, laying back the chin against 
the throat without inconvenience. Along with this change there 
is a decrease in power of the muscles closing the jaw, due 
probably to lack of use of the lower canines (used against the 
upper ones in other Carnivora, but useless in this way to the 
sabre-tooth).” 
