"Ancient Mitochondrial DNA Sheds Light on Evolutionary " Topic

…History of Saber-Toothed Cats

""It's quite crazy that, in terms of their mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), these two saber-toothed cats are more distant from each other than tigers are from house cats," said lead author Dr. Johanna Paijmans, from the University of Potsdam in Germany.

Dr. Paijmans and co-authors reconstructed the mitochondrial genomes from ancient-DNA samples representing three Homotherium from Europe and North America and one specimen of Smilodon populator.

The Smilodon sample was collected in Chile and is dated to 11,335 years. Two Homotherium fossils were collected in northwest Canada. The European Homotherium was recovered from the North Sea and is dated to 28,000 years…"

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Amicalement
Armand

I'm always amazed by those teeth, and how they were able to eat with them.

I wonder how many of them starved to death, because they had a big bone stuck between the palate (or jaw) and those magnificent saber teeth.

Dan

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

The most fascinating fact in that article is that Homotherium was still around only 28,000 years ago! Previous discoveries suggested that those cats had died out long before that time.