First, sorry for disappearing for a few days. I was visiting family who kept me a lot busier than I thought I'd be there, so I didn't have the time to post for the last few days.
Moving on though. Smilodon, also known as the Saber Toothed Cat, or sometimes the Saber Toothed Tiger or Lion. I don't like calling them that because they aren't particularly closely related to either of those living species, so I'll just call them Smilodons. Anyway, isn't that a fun name?
So, Smilodons. They're the state fossil of California, which is a bit hilarious to me because they're pretty widespread, but we'll give them that because there were a few hundred found in the La Brea Tar Pits, in LA. Smilodons are the most well known of the genus, but not nearly the only saber toothed cat. They are just known for the biggest teeth. They are also pretty big, with some suggestions putting them up to 600 pounds full grown. For reference, full grown male lions are about 400-450 pounds, so Smilodons are half again their size.
One of the theories about what killed them off about 11,000 years ago is that they, along with the other large predators, ran out of food when the large prey died off also, and they had a lot of competition. Apparently that's not all completely true, because the Dire Wolf hunted in the flatlands and plains, but the Smilodon was more of a forest cat, like many of the current large cats. This means that it's unlikely that Smilodons died off because of a lack of Mammoths, but it did have problems because it was more specialized and when it's prey died off, it didn't adapt well.
If you're interested in the history of the study of Smilodons, how they got the mistaken name of 'Saber Toothed Tigers', and what people thought of them over the years since their discovery, the La Brea Tar Pit has that for you. For more about them being forest dwellers, National Geographic has that. UC Berkley and the Encyclopedia have information about the cats themselves. Otherwise, Google will give you everything you want to know. Have fun and explore to your heart's content.
Sources:
Encyclopedia Britannica-- Smilodon
UC Berkley-- Saber Toothed Cats
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