Prey
Many of the extinct subfamilies of the saber-toothed cats' food source were large mammals such as elephants, rhinos, and other colossal herbivores of the era. The evolution of enlarged canines in Tertiary carnivores was a result of large mammals being the source of prey for saber-toothed cats. The development of the saber-toothed condition appears to represent a shift in function and killing behavior, rather than one in predator-prey relations. There are many hypotheses concerning saber-tooth killing methods, some of which include attacking soft tissue such as the belly and throat, where biting deep was essential to generate killing blows. The elongated teeth also aided with strikes reaching major blood vessels in these large mammals. However, the precise functional advantage of the saber-toothed cat's bite, particularly in relation to prey size, is a mystery. A new point-to-point bite model is introduced in the article by Andersson et al., showing that for saber-tooth cats, the depth of the killing bite decreases dramatically with increasing prey size. The extended gape of saber-toothed cats results in a considerable increase in bite depth when biting into prey with a radius of less than 10 cm. For sabre-tooth, this size-reversed functional advantage suggests predation on species within a similar size range to those attacked by present-day carnivorans, rather than "mega herbivores" as previously believed.
Some scientists say that the name of the cat is actually misleading. The large canines did indeed distinguish the cat from others, but when it came to hunting prey, it was the strong front limbs of the cat that got the job done. These strong muscles held down the prey while the cat then attempted to bite into the meat. This reason is why many scientists argue that it was the incredibly strong front limbs that truly distinguished the cat from the rest. The power of the front limbs should not be overlooked, especially since they were one of a kind on such a creature. Regardless, the cat was at the top of the food chain due to the combined power of both the extended teeth, which helped tear up and eat the meat, and the strong limbs.
A disputing view of the cat’s hunting technique and ability is presented by C.K. Brain in “The Hunters or the Hunted?” in which he attributes the cats’ neck muscles for its ability at killing large prey. Large cats use both the upper and lower jaw to bite down and bring down the prey. The strong bite of the jaw is accredited to the strong temporalis muscle that attach from the skull to the coronoid process of the jaw. The larger the coronoid process, the larger the muscle that attaches there and therefore the stronger the bite. As C.K. Brain points out, the saber-toothed cats had a greatly reduced coronoid process and therefore a disadvantageously weak bite. The cat did however have an enlarged mastoid process, a muscle attachment at the base of the skull, which attaches to neck muscles. According to C.K. Brain the saber-tooth would use a “downward thrust of the head, powered by the neck muscles” to drive the large upper canines into the prey. This technique was “more efficient than those of true cats”.
Read more about this topic: Saber-toothed Cats
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