Sabertooth YouTube video
Sabertoothed mammals are today’s topic,
and a video by Professor Steve Wroe is front and center.
My comments follow:
After perusing the comments, the following points have not been made:
1) Musk deer males only (genus: Moschus, Fig 1) expose their saber teeth. So do the deer-pig males (genus: Babyrousa). So that ‘exposed tooth’ issue can be resolved by examination and comparison.
Figure 1. Moschus the musk deer skull in several views.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/moschus-musk-deer-skull588-.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/moschus-musk-deer-skull588-.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-91243″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/moschus-musk-deer-skull588-.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. Moschus the musk deer skull in several views.” width=”584″ height=”359″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/moschus-musk-deer-skull588-.jpg?w=584&h=359 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/moschus-musk-deer-skull588-.jpg?w=150&h=92 150w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/moschus-musk-deer-skull588-.jpg?w=300&h=184 300w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/moschus-musk-deer-skull588-.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 1. Moschus the musk deer skull in several views.
2) In phylogenetic analysis Dinictis and Nimravus, the ‘false’ saber-tooth cats, actually nests with cats like Panthera.
Figure x. Smilodon skull, skeleton, manus and pes with PILs added. Compare to Stylinodon in figure y.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/smilodon_skull588.jpg?w=141″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/smilodon_skull588.jpg?w=483″ class=”size-full wp-image-71427″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/smilodon_skull588.jpg” alt=”Figure x. Smilodon skull, skeleton, manus and pes with PILs added.” width=”584″ height=”1239″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/smilodon_skull588.jpg?w=584&h=1239 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/smilodon_skull588.jpg?w=71&h=150 71w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/smilodon_skull588.jpg?w=141&h=300 141w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/smilodon_skull588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 2. Smilodon skull, skeleton, manus and pes with PILs added.
3) On the other hand, Smilodon nests with Kolponomos, and these with Hoplophoneus, and these with Gulo, the wolverine, and Arctodus, the short-face bear, and these with three species of Ursus, not with cats. So the earlier comment and your reply that the skeleton looked ‘bearish’ are supported. Melursus and Tremarctos are the most closely related living taxa in that analysis, so perhaps an extended study including these taxa would be informative. Neither are sabertooth taxa and neither are apex predators.
4) Barbourofelis, Thylacosmilus and Patagosmilus nest together as transitional marsupials to one of three convergent placental clades. Sabertoothed Didymoconus colgatei with a 5cm long skull was an ancestor. Machaeroides nested at the base of that clade, just a node or two apart from two members of the extant marsupial genus, Monodelphis. M sorex is another living sabertooth (Fig 3), examined here: Blanco RE, Jones WW and Milne NN 2013.
Figure 3. Monodelphis sorex skull 3 views.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/monodelphis-sorex-skull-3views588.jpg?w=175″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/monodelphis-sorex-skull-3views588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-91248″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/monodelphis-sorex-skull-3views588.jpg” alt=”Figure 3. Monodelphis sorex skull 3 views.” width=”584″ height=”999″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/monodelphis-sorex-skull-3views588.jpg?w=584&h=999 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/monodelphis-sorex-skull-3views588.jpg?w=88&h=150 88w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/monodelphis-sorex-skull-3views588.jpg?w=175&h=300 175w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/monodelphis-sorex-skull-3views588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 3. Monodelphis sorex skull 3 views.
5) These phylogenetic connections were made by simply expanding the taxon list. Anyone can test this by adding taxa. Cladogram here: http://reptileevolution.com/reptile-tree.htm
References
Blanco RE, Jones WW and Milne NN 2013. Is the extant southern short-tailed opossum a pigmy sabretooth predator?. Journal of Zoology, 291(2), 100-110.
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2025/01/21/sabertooth-youtube-video/
