Study Links 200 Spinal Defects to Saber-Toothed Cat Decline 12,000 Years Ago
Updated
Updated · ScienceAlert · Aug 16
Study Links 200 Spinal Defects to Saber-Toothed Cat Decline 12,000 Years Ago
3 articles · Updated · ScienceAlert · Aug 16
Summary
More than 3,700 vertebrae from at least 849 Smilodon fatalis individuals show widespread congenital spinal defects, supporting a new theory that inbreeding weakened saber-toothed cats before their extinction.
The study found over 200 vertebral malformations, nearly 50 fused vertebrae and signs of chronic inflammatory disease, injuries that likely impaired hunting and mobility in a top ambush predator.
Three lower-back vertebrae also showed spinal nerve tumors, implying a prevalence of 353 per 100,000 specimens—far above the 0.38 per 100,000 upper-range incidence cited for humans.
Those disabilities may help explain why so many Smilodon remains accumulated at Los Angeles' La Brea Tar Pits, where trapped herbivores lured carnivores into fatal asphalt seeps.
DNA evidence is unavailable because no soft tissue survives at the site, but the researchers say the pattern fits broader late-Pleistocene inbreeding seen in other mammals such as mammoths.