The Sabertooth Files: Dinofelis · 6:39pm Jun 10th, 2020
Imagine that you wake up from sleeping in and not caring what your boss says and you find yourself in a patchwork of woodlands and grasslands, and the first animals you see are wildebeest and impala, you think to yourself "Okay I'm in Africa wait......how did I even get here!?". You hear rumbling sounds behind you, and when you turn around you see elephants walking past you, but these are not elephants you're familiar with. The elephants you see have tusks under their jaws and now you think to yourself "What even am I anymore!!!", you then suddenly get the feeling that from the nearby woods, something is watching you. You remember hearing somewhere about a type of cat that was theorized to hunt hominids and now you begin wishing that you were wearing brown pants.
The cat that our time traveler here heard about was none other than Dinofelis, a sabertoothed cat in the group of cats called the Metailurins which were a group of sabertoothed cats with smaller and less flattened canine teeth. This animal lived throughout the Pliocene to the Early Pleistocene in Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America. In Europe and Asia, the climate was warmer and more humid and so forests dominated the landmass and in that time and place, Dinofelis was the dominant big cat, but as the forests gave way to more open spaces it had to now deal with the competition with Homotherium and Megantereon. In Africa, Dinofelis had to deal with both sabertooth rivals but in Africa, the genus thrived and even diversified into many different species. Dinofelis is believed to have been an ambush hunter, and due to its size which was between that of a leopard and lion, it likely would have lived in more wooded areas and because it was more adaptable than Homotherium and Megantereon to a changing environment due to being less specialized, it could've lived in dense jungles, unlike the other two sabertooths. By living in more forested spots it could have climbed trees to escape from Homotherium and early lions and it would coexist with Megantereon which Dinofelis was larger than and stronger than Megantereon. Plus being in thicker forests, there is the possibility of Dinofelis having black forms like leopards and jaguars.
In the documentary series Walking With Beasts Dinofelis is described as being a killer of hominids. The theory was created when paleontologist "Bob" Brain brought up the theory that hominids were basically seen as tasty treats on two legs and that Dinofelis was a specialist in hunting primates. However, in 2000 a group of scientists did an isotopic analysis of the tooth enamel of lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, Dinofelis, Megantereon, and Chasmorpothetes (type of extinct hyena). The team found that Megantereon, leopards, and spotted hyenas ate hominids for dinner (or whatever meal it was) while Dinofelis was mostly hunting ungulates like antelopes. This makes sense because ungulates aren't as hard to catch and make up more biomass than primates pus you have to remember that hominids probably would've used rocks and sticks to fight back if attacked. This does not mean Dinofelis never hunted hominids, and if the opportunity presented itself, it likely would go for it if hungry.
But the animal stalking our time traveler is not a Dinofelis.
"Phew! So I'm not being stalked?"
Actually you are being stalked, just not by a Dinofelis, but a Megantereon.
"Wait...what!!?" (Megantereon bursts from the woods)
"GAAAAHH!!!!! WHY!!!??"
Welcome to your new job, the punching bag for the sabertooths in the blog.
https://www.maropeng.co.za/news/entry/dinofelis_hominid_hunter_or_misunderstood_feline
https://chasingsabretooths.wordpress.com/2015/10/28/true-survivors-nothing-false-about-the-false-sabretooths/
https://chasingsabretooths.wordpress.com/2015/11/19/dinofelis-prince-of-darkness-or-dark-prince/
All of my yes
!!!