Sabre-Toothed Cat From 9 Million Years Ago Could Take Down Prey 10 Times Its Size

A newly-identified 600-pound ancient wild cat that lived from five to nine million years ago in North America could have taken down prey about 10 times its size, research showed.

A Mail Online report said that US experts named the ferocious discovery 'Machairodus lahayishupup' in honor of the Cayuse people, on whose lands, the original specimen was excavated.

'Laháyis Húpup' in Old Cayuse means ancient wild cat. Machairodus, on the other hand, is a well-known type of giant, sabre-toothed cats from North America, Africa and Eurasia.

The research team believes that the newly discovered species lived in the evolution of the sabre-toothed cats, although more studies will be needed to verify this.

ALSO READ: New Lizard Species Has "Perplexing" Possible Positions in the Evolutionary Tree

'Machairodus lahayishupup'

M. lahayishupup is a relative of Smilodon, debatably the best recognized of sabre-toothed cats, which had gone extinct approximately 10,000 years ago.

The new find was identified primarily from its massive forearms, a trait used by sabre-toothed cats to pacify their prey.

The study, "Quantitative Analyses of Feliform Humeri Reveal the Existence of a Very Large Cat in North America During the Miocene," published in the Journal of Mammalian Evolution, was conducted by biologists Jonathan Calede from the Ohio State University and John Orcutt of the Gonzaga University in Spokane Washington.

Describing their study, Professor Calede said they believe what they found were regularly taking down "bison-sized animals." This, he continued, was by far, the hugest cat alive during that time.

Giant Cat

According to Professor Orcutt, one of the major stories of this study is that they ended up revealing specimen after specimen of the giant cat in western North American museums. He added, the specimens they uncovered were clearly that of big cats'.

He explained, they began with a few assumptions based on the specimen's age, ranging from 5.5 to nine million years old, as well as based on their size, due to the fact that the discoveries were huge.

The biologist also said, what they did not have before that they now have, is the test of, if those bones' anatomy and size tell anything. The result turned that indeed, they did tell anything.

To prove that the humerus' elbow portion could be used along with teeth to distinguish species of a giant cat, the duo examined forearm specimens of jaguars, pumas, lions, panthers, and tigers, along with other extinct felines from museums worldwide.

Ancient Wild Cat's Prey

A similar EurekAlert! specified that the biologists speculated as to the nature of the prey of the ancient wild cat by considering its size, as well as the animals which existed in the surrounding region during that time, among whom were rhinoceroses, giant ground sloths, the so-called "Hemiauchenia," also known as giant camel relatives.

The experts emphasized that the only jaw specimen of M. lahayishupup known at present is that of the lower jaw, and therefore, regrettably, does not comprise the iconic sabre-shaped canines that Machairodus are famous for.

Nevertheless, according to Professor Orcutt, they are quite confident it is a sabre-toothed cat and they are quite confident it is a new specimen of the Machairodus species.

Sabre-toothed animals, as described in Britannica, are any of the catlike carnivores that had gone extinct, and belonged to either the extinct Nimravidae family or the Machairodontinae subfamily of the cat family.

The problem though, he continued, is that their understanding of the manner all these sabre-toothed cats are associated with each other is slightly uncertain, specifically early in their evolution.

Researchers, in particular, have not had the clearest picture in the past of exactly the amount of the giant cats' species that existed, said Professor Orcutt.

Related information is shown on BBC's YouTube video below: