Saturday, March 23, 2013

What was a saber-toothed tiger?


Saber-toothed tigers were big cats with long, saber like teeth. In the Old Stone Age, there lived a bit cat, more ferocious in appearance than any known today.

This was the saber-toothed tiger.  It was not really a tiger.  But it resembled a tiger and had two long teeth curved like swords called sabers—which accounts for its name of “saber-toothed tiger.”

Sometimes its teeth were as long as 8 inches and could easily slash the thick skins of the large mammoths upon which it preyed.

Perhaps where you live today, saber-toothed tigers stalked their prey long ago.  They prowled most parts of the world and found plenty to eat in North America.

The last of them died out thousands of years ago. Some people think they became extinct because their teeth grew so long that they could no longer open their mouths wide enough to eat.

But it is more likely that they died out when the big animals upon which they depended for food became scarce. - Dick Rogers

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