Smilodon - The Social Hypothesis

The Social Hypothesis

It had long been assumed that machairodonts were solitary, but the idea had no foundation or factual basis, though without any suggestion otherwise, it was widely regarded as true for over 150 years. Recently, research upon which African carnivores respond to playback of animals in distress has been used to analyse the finds of animal species and their numbers at the La Brea tar pits. Such playbacks find animal distress calls such as would come from an animal trapped in the tar pit would attract pack hunters such as lions and spotted hyenas, not lone hunters. Given the carnivores found at tar pits were predominately Smilodon and the social dire wolf, this suggests that the former like the latter was also a social animal. One expert, who found the study convincing, further speculated that if that was the case, then Smilodon's exaggerated canine teeth might have been used more for social or sexual signaling than hunting. However, the lack of sexual dimorphism in the canine teeth makes this unlikely.