FOSSIL CARNIVORA 



25 



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- 



FIQ. 19. SKULL AND LOWER JAW OF DINICTIS 

 Primitive Sabre-Tooth Tiger from the Oligocene of Colorado. One-half natural size 



lophonens 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. HoplopJwnens was proportioned some- 

 what like a leopard, but with shorter smaller limbs and very 

 short spreading feet. Dinictis had longer limbs, but the teeth 

 were less specialized. Archccluriis 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 modem 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 



