Old cats hunted prey from ambush.
Saber-toothed tigers is injured more often than the terrible wolves Scientists with no signs of damage on the skeletons of saber-toothed tigers and terrible wolves which were the main predators of the ice age, established feature of their hunting and determined what injuries they were ruined.
In the study, researchers examined the remains of two species of top-predators of the ice age – saber-toothed cats smilodon (Smilodon fatalis) and the terrible wolves (Canis dirus). Today believe paleontologists, smilodon and terrible the wolves were complete opposites – cats hunting big victims of the ambush by jumping on them and trying to bite her neck, and the wolf – attacks on medium-sized herbivores, chasing and driving them to exhaustion, using only legs and jaw. Analysis of the remains of saber-toothed cats and wolves has shown that differences in the manner of their hunting is really reflected in what injuries they often received. For example, saber-toothed cats in half of the cases injured in the lumbar spine, shoulders, and hind legs, and wolves are more often suffered from injuries of the ankle, bones of the front and rear legs, torn ligaments and fractures of the neck.
Both confirmed the hypothesis of scientists about how to hunt these predators. Saber-toothed tigers often injured in cases where they failed to press the victim with their front paws after the attack from an ambush, and she threw them or fell on the cat’s body, breaking her spine. In turn, the horrible wolves broke his neck when the victim shook his head, trying to throw the predator, as well as broken legs and torn ligaments, stumbling in pursuit of prey. The researchers also found that predatory cats are more often injured than their canine “competitors”.
Scientists believe this is due to the fact that saber-toothed tigers hunted the larger victims than wolves, and did it alone, which increased the risk of injury. In addition, it may be due to the fact that smilodon lived much longer than the horrible wolves that allowed them to accumulate more damage throughout life. Previously, paleontologists have found the remains of a giant ancient crocodile, “Caroline butcher.” The animal lived 231 million years ago may have been the deadliest creature on Earth before the evolution of the largest dinosaurs.
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