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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