New Genus And Species Of Saber-Toothed Cat Discovered In Fossils In Florida

Researchers from the University of Florida have discovered a previously unknown genius and species of saber-toothed cat based on a study of 5-million-year-old fossils.

The fossils of the extinct cat have the same linage as the Smilodon fatalis, a carnivorous apex predator with characteristically elongated upper canine teeth.

The findings, based on fossil acquisitions over the last 25 years, go against the thought that the group of saber-toothed cats known as Smilodontini originated in the Old World and then migrated to North America. The age of this new species suggests the group originated in North America.

"Smilodon first shows up on the fossil record around 2.5 million years ago, but there haven't been a lot of good intermediate forms for understanding where it came from," said study co-author Richard Hulbert Jr., vertebrate paleontology collections manager at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the University of Florida campus, according to a report issued by the university.

"The new species shows that the most famous saber-toothed cat, Smilodon, had a New World origin and it and its ancestors lived in the southeastern U.S. for at least 5 million years before their extinction about 11,000 years ago. Compared to what we knew about these earlier saber-toothed cats 20 or 30 years ago, we now have a much better understanding of this group."

The fossils of the newly identified species were originally misidentified as an other type of cat when the fossils were studied in the 1980s.

"When people think of saber-toothed cats, they think of it as just one thing, as if the famous tar pit saber-toothed cat was the only species, when in fact, it was an almost worldwide radiation of cats that lasted over 10 million years and probably had a total of about 20 valid species," Hulbert said. "Counting the newly described animal, there are now six different species of saber-toothed cats known just from Florida."

Full text of the report here.