Saber Tooth Tigers

By Brady

Saber tooth tigers lived many, many years ago back when the earth was trapped in an Ice Age.  At that time, woolly mammoths and mastodons roamed the icy land.  Smilodons, which were a type of saber tooth tiger, were a tiny bit smaller than the panthers that live today.  However, smilodons were heavier than panthers, weighing a whopping 440 lbs.  The smilodons were the biggest kind of saber tooth.  Saber tooths were very fierce predators.  The saber tooth tiger was about the size of the African lion.  Some saber tooth tigers grew up to 15 feet in length!

Scientists say that saber tooth tigers probably ate mammoths, antelope, deer, and buffalo.  When they ate animals bigger than themselves, such as mammoths and buffalo, they would have had a big group of saber tooths, called a pack, kill the animal.  Scientists also think that some saber tooth tigers could have possibly lived in grassy or woody habitats, but others could have lived in icy lands.  Saber tooths lived in many places in Asia and Europe.  However, some saber tooth tiger remains have been found in the La Brea tar pits in California.  These bones are said to be over 10,000 years old.  Obviously, the saber tooth made its way to North America.

Citations

Web Sites

Angus, Jim. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Foundation.
Cats! Wild to Mild "Saber-toothed Cat" at
http://www.nhm.org/cats/encyclo/smilodon/ (April, 2003).

Webmaster@kittycatfurballs.com “Kitty Cat Furballs” at 
http://home.att.net/~kittycatfurballs/saber.html.

Images

Image of tiger on right side of page from "Microsoft Office Design Gallery Live" <http://dgl.microsoft.com/?CAG=1> Images free for non-profit and personal use. (December-March, 2003). 

Images of tigers on left side of page from "ArtToday.com" <http://members.clipart.com/en/index> (2003).