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eppur_se_muova

(36,227 posts)
Wed Sep 27, 2017, 06:46 PM Sep 2017

This Cat Was Buff: Saber-Toothed Kittens Were Muscly (LiveScience)

By Laura Geggel, Senior Writer | September 27, 2017 02:46pm ET

Instead of packing on copious muscles as it grew, the saber-toothed cat (Smilodon fatalis) maintained its robustness from kittenhood, all while growing longer and more slender as it progressed into adulthood, the researchers found.

"The babies start off muscle-bound and then they grow like every other cat," said study co-researcher Donald Prothero, a research associate in the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. [12 Amazing Saber-Toothed Animals]

It's well known among paleontologists that S. fatalis — a now-extinct beast that lived from about 37,000 to 9,000 years ago — had an Arnold Schwarzenegger-like body. The fierce kitty had a broad chest and short, stout limbs, said study lead researcher Katherine Long, a master's student in the Department of Geological Sciences at California State Polytechnic University.

"But we didn't really know too much about their kittens," Long told Live Science. "We just know [that] as adults, they were just really, really muscle-bound."
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more: https://www.livescience.com/60540-saber-toothed-kittens-muscle.html

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This Cat Was Buff: Saber-Toothed Kittens Were Muscly (LiveScience) (Original Post) eppur_se_muova Sep 2017 OP
I wonder if anyone ever tried to raise one from kittenhood. hunter Sep 2017 #1

hunter

(38,264 posts)
1. I wonder if anyone ever tried to raise one from kittenhood.
Thu Sep 28, 2017, 02:56 PM
Sep 2017

There's always been people willing to take the chance with wolves and pigs and bears and tigers.

It seems much less likely if smilodon kittens were solid muscle and already capable of doing serious damage to anyone who tried to keep them.

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