The La Brea researchers saw the canines of Smilodon as serrated knives.
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Aside from the woolly mammoth, no Pleistocene creature is more iconic than Smilodon.
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Top Image: A restoration of Smilodon by Charles R. Knight.
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When Merriam and Stock compiled the book, though, no one knew how Smilodon hunted.
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Attenborough said he had been particularly astonished by the computer-generated movements of the skeletal Smilodon.
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Likewise, Matthew criticized the proposal that Smilodon was aquatic.
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Viewed from a Darwinian perspective, it didn't make sense that Smilodon would evolve itself into extinction.
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No such division was seen in Smilodon, though.
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On a superficial level, the predatory habits of the saber-toothed cat Smilodon would not seem to be especially mysterious.
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The dirk-toothed cats -such as the famous Smilodon -had long, slender canine teeth and relatively stocky frames.
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Imagine a Smilodon crouched over a freshly killed horse, fangs buried to the hilt, slurping blood from the wounds.
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How Smilodon got in position to repeatedly slam its mouth into a bison or mastodon's hide, the paleontologists didn't say.
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A Smilodon fends off vultures at what would later be called the Rancho La Brea tar pits, situated in Los Angeles, California.
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The trend seen among the modern lions allowed the researchers to accurately interpret the data for the extinct La Brea lions and Smilodon.
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For years, paleontologists have been debating whether Smilodon was a social hunter, like the lions, or whether the sabercat was a tiger-like, solitary hunter.
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For decades after its discovery the saber-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis was depicted as little more than a lion with a short tail and long fangs.