Smilodon

For our ancestors surviving at the end of the Ice Age, coming face-to-face with Smilodon must have been one of their worst nightmares.

Smilodon fatalis, also known as the sabre-toothed cat, only disappeared from the Earth about 11,000 years ago, and cave drawings confirm that it co-existed with humans in the New World for thousands of years.

Some experts think humans helped drive the creature into extinction by killing off the large animals it hunted.

One of Smilodon’s problems may have been that it was superbly equipped for killing big prey, such as horses and buffalo, but not so good at catching smaller and faster animals.

The sabre-toothed cat was about the size of a modern lion, but far more powerfully built, with short, muscular limbs.

It was not good at running, but probably stalked its prey before pouncing suddenly from a hiding place.

The huge claws and strong limbs and neck would have wrestled the victim to the ground and pinned it down. Then the knife-like fangs would have been sunk deep into the throat or soft underbelly, causing almost instant death.

What Smilodon didn’t have, according to new research, was a powerful pair of jaws. In fact, from this point of view, it was a bit of a pussy cat. A new "reverse engineering" study by scientists in Australia shows that its bite was only about a third as strong as a lion’s.

Dr Steve Woe, from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, said: "For all its reputation, Smilodon had a wimpy bite. It bit like a moggy."

The sabre-toothed cat appears to have been designed to kill swiftly with a coup-de-grace lunge from its fangs, unlike the lion, which grips its prey for a long time, often causing death by suffocation.

The scientists used a computer-based technique called Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to test the bite force and feeding mechanics of Smilodon.

FEA is normally used to test the structural strength of trains, cars and planes. In this case, the researchers used it to find out what sort of bite forces a sabre-toothed cat skull was able to handle.

They discovered that Smilodon’s narrow jaw would have had a much weaker bite than that of a lion.

The findings, reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, do not detract from the fact that the sabre-toothed cat was a very fearsome predator, said the scientists.

Lead author Colin McHenry, from the University of Newcastle in Callaghan, Australia, said: "The sabrecat had an immensely powerful body; perfect for wrestling large prey to the ground, and our models show that it needed to do this before trying a bite.

"Killing was more likely applied to the prey’s throat, because it is easier to restrain the prey this way. Once the bite was done the prey would have died almost instantly."

However, the lion is probably a better "all rounder" hunter than Smilodon was, said the researchers.

The sabre-toothed cat was a ruthlessly efficient hunter of big game, but ridiculously over-engineered for taking small prey.