Information on the Woolly Mammoth & Saber Tooth Tiger

The saber toothed tiger, a ferocious predator, and the woolly mammoth are two mammals that have become extinct. Science knows much about these creatures through the fossils that researchers discovered across the world. The saber-toothed tiger, also called Smilodon, is the official state fossil of California, since archeologists have discovered so many bones of the animal there. The woolly mammoth was a relative of the Indian elephant, but adapted to live in colder regions.

Smilodon Description

Hundreds of thousands of fossilized bones discovered in the California La Brea Tar Pits reveal much about Smilodon. Scientists know that the saber-toothed tiger was approximately one foot shorter at its shoulder than modern day lions. However, the animal weighed nearly twice as much at about 440 pounds. These cats, which are not close relatives of the present day tiger despite their names, were four to five feet long and possessed a bobtail much like a bobcat does. They most likely were more powerful than swift, with strong front shoulder muscles that aided in their leaping onto ambushed prey.

Saber Teeth

The Smilodon had two long canine teeth that protruded from its upper jaw that gave it its "saber-toothed" name. The skull of the cat was a foot long and the neck and jaw muscles had to have great strength for the cat to use the teeth to stab its victims. The jaws opened very wide, with scientists measuring some at angles of 120 degrees. It is believed that this cat lived in groups like lions do as evidenced by fossils showing healed broken bones. For an injured individual to survive it probably lived within a group with a social structure that cared for it until it could manage on its own.

Mammoth Identification

The woolly mammoth had a thick coat of dark hair and a lining of fur beneath it. It resembled the elephant but was larger, with some almost 10 feet high at the shoulders. The mammoth could reach weights of 6,000 pounds and had long curving tusks, with the ivory tusks used for defensive purposes, mating fights and clearing away the snow in the search for food.

Mammoth Facts

While the Smilodon was a meat eater, the mammoth consumed only vegetation. Leaves, grasses and twigs found in the stomach of preserved carcasses indicate that the wooly mammoth had a diet similar to elephants. It probably used its long trunk to grab leaves and grasses. Over the centuries, people have found as many as 50,000 wooly mammoth tusks; the largest was a 208-pound specimen that was 16 feet in length. Their population may have numbered 1 million at one time.

Extinction

The mammoth went extinct during the last Ice Age, approximately 4,000 years ago. The combination of the climate change and the constant hunting of humans was most likely the cause of its demise. Cave drawings from Spain and France indicate that people hunted mammoths, and scientists discovered a frozen and preserved mammoth in the ice in Siberia in 1997. Smilodon met a similar fate 10,000 years ago, with the weather changes and the pressure of human hunting proving too much to survive against.

References

• Enchanted Learning Website
• Smilodon facts
• Thebigzoo Website