Saber-toothed cats with oral injuries ate softer foods than their uninjured counterparts

Saber-toothed cats with oral injuries ate softer foods than their uninjured counterparts

5 years ago
Anonymous $yysEBM5EYi

https://phys.org/news/2018-11-saber-toothed-cats-oral-injuries-ate.html

The cat's prey animals were larger 10,000 to 50,000 years ago, DeSantis says, and could have easily broken jaws or kicked teeth completely free from the socket, leading to subsequent and sometimes lethal infection. It's unlikely that cats with such severe injuries could take down large animals and consume their soft, fleshy meat, she says, or even survive long after the injury.

"The fact that they're eating food that really shouldn't be available to them unless they're being provided for, and that they're living with these injuries for prolonged periods of time suggests they're being provisioned food by other cats," she says. DeSantis will share her findings on Monday, 5 November, at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana.