What is Thylacosmilus?
Q: What is Thylacosmilus?
A: Thylacosmilus is an extinct genus of carnivorous sparassodont found as fossils in deposits dated from about 10 million to 3 million years ago in Argentina, South America.
Q: What kind of teeth did Thylacosmilus have?
A: Thylacosmilus had long and powerfully developed canine teeth, which were used for stabbing prey.
Q: How did Thylacosmilus kill its prey?
A: Thylacosmilus held its prey and made deep bites into the soft tissue driven by powerful neck muscles.
Q: How did Thylacosmilus' canine teeth differ from those of marsupials or placental mammals?
A: Thylacosmilus' canine teeth continued to grow during adult life, which they do not in marsupials or placental mammals.
Q: When did Thylacosmilus die out?
A: Thylacosmilus died out during the late Pliocene epoch.
Q: When did saber-toothed cats first appear in South America?
A: Saber-toothed cats did not get to South America until the middle Pleistocene epoch, which is over one and a half million years after the last appearance of Thylacosmilus.
Q: How did Thylacosmilus compare to saber-toothed cats?
A: Thylacosmilus paralleled the evolution of felid sabre-toothed cats like Smilodon to a remarkable degree.
