Miomachairodus - Lifestyle - Hunting

Hunting

The specialization of the dentition of Miomachairodus would have meant a limited number of prey items. Fewer teeth that were primarily slicing premolars and not crushing molars meant that grass or anything with cellulose would not have been on the menu. The specialization of diet, from omnivore eating mostly meat, to obligatory carnivore eating almost nothing but meat, takes its toll on an individual. Certain machairodont groups crossed the boundary from normal obligatory carnivore, including all of today's cats, to the category of hypercarnivore. This group consists of a handful of the species most dependent on meat, from cheetahs, Acinonyx jubatus, who will eat only fresh kills that they have killed themselves through their unique hunting sequence, to polar bears, Ursus maritimus who eat only seals in the Arctic where most of the year there is no plant material to be eaten. Machairodonts such as the Homotheriini group are placed in this league because their dentition denies them eating nothing but meat, and probably fresh, so scavenging is unlikely for Miomachairodus.

This increasing dependency on meat meant that hunting would occupy more time and an any injury could have led to an inability to hunt and starvation, so the species would have to be careful of such risks. This could be combated, on the other hand, if the species was social, as in Smilodon. Risks would still be risks, but if an animal sprained a wrist, it could still fall back on family members as seen in wolves and occasionally lions in the modern day. Lion prides consist of related females and an unrelated male (or several if they are brothers or cousins) who take over the pride and are periodically kicked out by a new male(s). This might have been the way a Miomachairodus familial group functioned.