Publisher's Synopsis
If you've ever wondered what the difference between a cat with a saber tooth and one without one might be, you've come to the right place. Listed below are Saber Tooth Cat Facts and some interesting trivia about these furry felines. Saber-toothed mammals are extinct and largely carnivorous. Their teeth are extremely long and curved, protruding out of their mouths when closed. The saber-toothed cat had a very sharp set of canines and a mouth nearly twice the size of a lion. It didn't have a strong jaw so it could bite bones, but it did use its teeth to tear prey to pieces. While the cat's teeth were very sharp and used for ripping and tearing, they didn't rely on them as a weapon - their teeth grew at an impressive eight millimeters per month, a rate equal to that of a human! The saber-toothed cat had long, muscular legs and a bobtail. Modern cats don't have long tails, which provides stability while chasing prey. The saber-toothed cat would have had to wait until its prey was in position for a fatal bite. Instead of chasing prey, a saber-toothed cat would have had to ambush to protect its teeth. Although the Saber Tooth Cat is now extinct, they were the most common predators of their time. The first saber-toothed creatures shared the same jaw structure as leopards, and as their jaws grew longer, their canines became increasingly sharp and their muscles became stronger, the saber-toothed cat eventually populated all of North and South America. While the saber-toothed cat had many species, the one most commonly known is Smilodon fatalis.
