Saber Tooth Tiger Facts

You must have enjoyed watching Ice Age, the animated movie. The main characters of Manfred "Manny", a woolly mammoth, Sid, a ground sloth, and Diego, a saber tooth tiger and their adventures made the movie based on prehistoric life a great watch. You must have developed your feelings of mistrust and hate for the saber tooth tiger into admiration and love as the story unfolded. In this article, we shall learn some interesting saber tooth tiger facts for kids, that will help you learn more about this Smilodon.

Interesting Saber Tooth Tiger Facts
Saber tooth tiger, is often called as the saber toothed cat or Smilodon that belonged to the machairodontinae, an extinct genus. The saber tooth tiger was native to North America and South America. The saber toothed tiger lived during the early Pleistocene through the Lujanian stage of Pleistocene epoch. In simple words, they ruled the earth about 9 million years ago and survived up to the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago. Let us go through the interesting saber tooth facts in detail.

Scientific Classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Felidae
Sub Family:	Machairodontinae
Genus:	Smilodon
Species:	S. fatalis, S. gracilis, Smilodon populator

Saber Tooth Tiger Facts about Classification
The name 'saber-toothed' is used because of their maxillary canines that reached an extreme length. The canines were about 7 inches long. Although called a saber tooth tiger, the Smilodon is not exactly a tiger. These animals belong to the subfamily Machairodontinae and tigers belong to the subfamily Pantherinae.

The genus Smilodon was first described by Peter Wilhelm Lund, a Danish naturalist and paleontologist in 1841. He first found the fossils of Smilodon populator in a small town of Lagoa Santa in Brazil. The three recognized species of saber tooth tiger are Smilodon gracilis, Smilodon fatalis and Smilodon populator.

Saber Tooth Tiger Physical Description
The saber toothed tiger was a large, powerful and muscular cat. These cats were however, smaller than the African lions, but slightly on the heavier side. The distinguishing feature of saber tooth tiger was their long, sharp canines. They used these sharp canines to slash through the stomach or teeth of their prey. It is very difficult to surely say, what was the color or pattern of their coat. Many scholars guess their colors as similar to the modern lions and may have been spotted, stripped or even plain in color.

Saber Tooth Tiger Habitat
The saber tooth tigers lived in North America and through South America along the Pacific coast. The saber tooth tiger habitat consisted of wooded grasslands, scrub lands and savannahs.

Saber Tooth Tiger Diet
The saber tooth tigers were obviously carnivores as indicated by their large canines. They were predators that hunted down medium sized mammals like the bison, deers and horses. They are also thought to be scavengers. The saber tooth tigers had baby teeth like humans. Once the baby teeth fell out, the adult canines would grow about 8 millimeters per month for 18 months. The saber tooth could open their jaw up to 120 degrees wide and thus, helping them use their canines more accurately for biting and chewing.

Saber Tooth Tiger Behavior
The saber tooth tiger were thought to be social animals like the modern day lions that live in prides or pairs. They may have hunted in small groups during the early part of the day. They might be sleeping or lazing around during the later part of the day, that is, afternoon. Like all cats, they could remain still for a long time, thus making them very difficult to spot. This made them great hunters as they were also strong like the tiger. The negative point of the saber tooth tiger was that they were not as fast as the tigers. Thus, they could not run after smaller prey that was faster than they were. They would kill a prey and drag it into a bush or long shrubs to protect their kill from scavengers.

Saber Tooth Tiger Voice
It has been seen that the saber tooth tigers had hyoid bones, that were present in the throat supporting the larynx. These bones are seen only in cats that can roar like the lion. This helps them communicate with other cats in a complex way over long distances. Thus, it is thought, they too roared like the lion and lived in a similar social surrounding.

Saber Tooth Tigers Extinction
The saber tooth tigers had the mastodons, ground slots and woolly mammoths for company. These animals lived during the ice age and became extinct about 10,000 years ago. The cause of their extinction was most likely climate change, terrain change and hunting by humans. As their prey became extinct, the saber tooth tigers lost their primary source of food. The smaller animals were much more agile than the saber toothed tigers and starvation may be one of the cause of their extinction. Human population may be another cause that lead to additional pressure driving these animals to extinction. You can read more on extinct animals.

Fun Saber Tooth Tiger Facts for Kids

• The saber tooth had a very warm fur coat that protected it from extreme weather during ice age.
• The saber tooth tiger probably used his coat to camouflage itself during hunting.
• The saber tooth tiger, used its whiskers like all cats for sense of touch during dark and feeling things around.
• The saber tooth tiger used the tail to balance itself while running and leaping over prey.
• The saber tooth tigers were more closely related to lions than tigers.
• The most common mammal fossils found in the Rancho La Brea tar pits in California are of saber tooth tiger.
• The saber tooth tigers lived about 1.5 million years ago and became extinct only 10 thousand years ago.