HISTORY OF THE CARNIVORA 531 



series. The fsabre-tooth cats were terrible beasts of prey, which 

 in most of the Tertiary period ranged over the whole northern 

 hemisphere and in the Pleistocene or late PUocene extended 

 throughout South America. 



The Pleistocene genus ^Smilodon (Frontispiece) belonged 

 to nearly the whole western hemisphere and its various species 



Fig. 261. — Skull 6f the Pleistocene tsabre-tooth tiger (tSmJiodon califomicus, 

 after Matthew). P. 4< fourth upper premolar, sectorial. 



were distributed from California and Pennsylvania on the 

 north, to the Argentine Pampas on the south. The most 

 obvious and striking peculiarities of ^Smilodon were in the 

 teeth, which were much reduced in number, the formula being : 

 ^3^) '^i; V 2^> '"^1- The upper canine was a great, curved, 

 scimitar-hke blade, eight inches or more in length, with broad 



